The French have a word for hors d'oeuvres, but I can't think of it...

[ciroccoj]

• Damn but I love my choir. This Saturday's concert is sounding wonderful. May seriously consider bringing the boys.
  
  
• Took the boys to the NAC the other day, to see Natalie MacMaster and Leahy with other home schoolers and regular-school kids. They loved it. Must find and buy their music.
  
  
• I waited with Daniel and Justin a total of almost two hours in a car-shop parking lot, last week and today, for some jerk who didn't bother to show up to take my car away. Happily, it wasn't that cold either day, but still. Tick me off. Friggin' jerk. Get on mah neerrves... jerk.
  
  
• The carshop guys were cool, though. They offered to get it hauled off at no charge. They also suggested I put some $14 fluid thingy into some part of my other car's engine-type part so that the bizarre thing that happened yesterday - my car just powered down in the middle of the Queensway, and I had to drive off to the shoulder and restart it - wouldn't happen again. Crossing fingers on that one, because the experience was a bit startling. Also, I don't get cars real well.
  
  
• My hard drive continues to be MIA. I took it in a few weeks ago and told the Future Shop guys I seemed to have an intermittent power supply; sometimes it took a long time and a lot of jiggling to get it to turn on, until one day it just refused to turn on.
  
  They had it for a few weeks. Finally handed it back, saying they'd cleaned it out and tested it and it booted just A-OK. I merrily hauled it back home, plugged it in... nada. Zip. Zilch.
  
  Called them. "Um, it's not working."
  
  "Well, you can always bring it back."
  
  "Um, yeah, thanks, I figured that part. Any help on why it might not turn on?"
  
  "What's it doing?"
  
  "Nothing. The little light turns on showing there's some electricity there, but the screen doesn't light up and there's no humming or anything."
  
  "Oh. Does the screen say it's booting?"
  
  "Um. No. The screen doesn't say anything. It doesn't light up."
  
  "Oh. But the light is on, on the button on the tower?"
  
  "Yeah, but nothing happens. It's not humming or anything."
  
  "Well some Dell computers are very quiet."
  
  Deep breath. "Not this one. I've had this computer for a few years. I know what it's supposed to sound like."
  
  "You can always bring it in again."
  
  .... fine. Hauled it back. They took it straight into the work area and converged upon it while I watched from the customer service counter.
  
  There followed a rather disturbingly complex and highly technical series of investigations by various Future Shop personnel. They went all out, really delving deep into the bowels of my precious computer, using all their collective expertise to puzzle out what was going on.
  
  In other words, they jabbed the ON button. Repeatedly. Paused, then jabbed it again. Knelt down to peer at the tower from a different angle, and jabbed it again. Looked at the light that went on in the front, shook their heads, and appeared to be telling each other, "The light's on but nothing's happening."
  
  Truer words, people.
  
  Anyway, after more of this geekery than I really cared to see, and after finally hooking it up to some diagnostic-looking Machine That Went Ping!, they elected a dude to come out and bear the bad tidings: "You appear to have an intermittent power supply."
  
  ::deep sigh::
  
  So now I'm in contact directly with Dell. Who said that, since their records showed I was not the original owner of the machine, they could not talk to me unless the original owner gave them permission. Privacy Laws, you know. Good luck getting that permission, I told them. The computer was my mom's. ::insert afterlife joke here::
  
  They told me to fill out a Transfer of Ownership Form. Which had "Original Owner's e-mail address" as one of the required fields. Problem: wtf was my mom's e-mail address?
  
  Dell's response: Please make sure that you fill out everything with an [*] or the submission will not process. If you do not know the previous owners information put your information in both the old and new spots.
  
  O... K...
  
  
• So the other day I wrote a long post about walking, and exercise, and how wrong it is that as a culture we don't seem to value movement as much as we value sitting-on-assedness. And I wasn't sure how to word it so it wouldn't be insulting to people who don't get a lot of exercise, or who are overweight. Because I really wasn't trying to put down individuals who, for whatever reason, don't - or can't - exercise; I was thinking contemplative thinky thoughts about our society itself.
  
  So I wrote this long post, and tried to make my words reflect my feelings of societal, notsomuch personal, disapproval... and somehow I think I ended up sounding insulting to Americans instead.
  
  ::facepalm::
  
  The thing is, I don't see it as an American problem, but as a North American one. I think, judging from stats and the difference in relative girth that I've seen between here and there, that the problem is more serious in America than Canada (though I do wonder how much of the size differences I saw had to do with Americans just exposing more of their bodies 'cause it's hotter down there). But our stats suck too, as do our urban layouts and cultural attitudes towards movement and all that stuff. And I think the exact same thinky thoughts around here as I did in Disneyworld.
  
  Like, I think my kids shouldn't be the only ones playing outside on our street. And there's something wrong with the picture when the weather gets nicer and we arrive at Cubs/Beavers on our bikes, and the parents and leaders look at us a bit puzzled and say, "Is it Bike Safety meeting tonight/It's not Bike Safety meeting tonight." And then look nonplussed when I explain that we know that; we're on our bikes because that's our mode of transportation for distances of less than a twenty-minute bike ride. They all live in the same neighbourhood; why are we the only ones to use our bikes as transportation rather than as (infrequent) recreation?
  
  Anyway. Just thought I'd clear that bit up, in case anyone was offended. The only reason the American thing came in there was that the thinky thoughts got stronger in the hyper-saturated cater-to-sloth tizzy of Orlando, and the size difference had shocked me a bit. I'm sure the same shock would've happened if I'd just been to Europe and then landed in Toronto - and gone straight to Canada's Wonderland. In fact, something like that happened when I spent Christmas in Switzerland when I was 16, then came back to Ottawa; three weeks of people walking and displaying BMIs of 20-30 made Canadians look somewhat more... um, substantial. Unhealthily so.
  
  
• Prince Caspian. ::falls over::

Comments

[mama-rana.livejournal.com]

we're on our bikes because that's our mode of transportation for distances of less than a twenty-minute bike ride.
How many miles does this equate to about? I'm just trying to think where I could go that would only be a 20 minute bike ride away. I sometimes walk to my acupuncturists house, which is about a 20 minute walk away, but it's also in my neighborhood, which doesn't have sidewalks, but at least isn't a highway.

Ugh, on the computer thing. Doesn't instill confidence, does it?

I was going...

[culturevulture7.livejournal.com]

...to comment on your other post about the obesity problem because it scares me to see so many people so...big. Of course, I think it's new, because I don't remember seeing people this large in the 70s.

Then I remember the priceless line from a Jilly Cooper book from the mid 80s (Jilly Cooper writes very fun summer read books in England). Her characters in that particular book are competing in the 1984 Os in Los Angeles. They make comments about the 'balloon people' at the mall. So it's longer than I think...

(and I freely admit to being overweight - although I'm working on getting my weight down because I'm tired of it!)

Vis a vis Orlando. There's good reason you can't walk there - because if you did, you would be a dark smear on the pavement. Seriously, I'm scared in Orlando IN MY CAR. I can testify that it's been crazy driving in Orlando since the 70s but now it's so so much worse because there are more things there. So I salute your wishing to walk but I'm happy you couldn't.

As for the park itself, y'know, they didn't want you to pass out in the humidity :-)

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

we're on our bikes because that's our mode of transportation for distances of less than a twenty-minute bike ride.
How many miles does this equate to about?
Hm... ::looks up Mapquest::
Around... 3/4 mile or so? I think?

Ugh, on the computer thing. Doesn't instill confidence, does it?
Not really. Three weeks in the shop, just to get to the point where they could quote the work order back at me. ::thinks dark thoughts in their general direction::

Re: I was going...

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

...what happened to my comment reply here? Could've sworn I hit Submit ::scritch scratch head::

They make comments about the 'balloon people' at the mall. So it's longer than I think...
LOL!!

Vis a vis Orlando. There's good reason you can't walk there - because if you did, you would be a dark smear on the pavement.
::snicker:: Yeah, I got that distinct impression. Especially with the lack of sidewalks.