Facebook...what did I do with all my free time before you?

This Facebook thing is pretty interesting. If you aren't on it, your'e pretty much out of the loop on the biggest craze since the Crackberry. A month ago hardly anyone was on it, and now you're a total loser if you aren't on it. I'm hearing from people I haven't laid eyes on since high school.

Its addictive, and alot of fun because everyone else is also addicted and they keep it up to date. I'm sure more than one workplace is going to shut it down because people are on it all of the time.

A bunch of years ago, I guess what people did was have chit chats at the grocery store or spread the gossip around over the backyard fence and you saw people on Sunday at church, so you had a natural outlet to see who was getting fat (are they pregnant or just hitting the Hagan Daaz?), who was going bald and who you wanted to kick because they looked too perfect all of the time.
Not everyone you met on the street or had a polite chit chat made the Christmas card list, but you were still interested in their news and they in yours. And sometimes you'd run into people you and just say 'C'mon over on Saturday, bring the kids!" and it wasn't a big deal.

But we don't all live in the same place like the old days and I suspect that even if we did people just don't have the time to connect. So this is seems to be replacing the old "hey how's it going? that you would naturally encounter in every day life if you lived in the same little town and knew everyone.

I can go for weeks in Ottawa and not run into someone I know. I'm always shocked when I do and I'm beyond expecting to see people I know. I think my Dad would hate that. My Dad walks 10 paces down the Mayflower Mall in Sydney and before he gets from the Wal Mart to the Suzy Sheir, he's got 3 new sign orders, found out the medical status of half the north end and has someone coming over Wednesday to look at why the lawn isn't thriving.

This gives me hope. It means that people still want to connect with one another. Face to face got replaced by the phone, the phone got replaced by email and we lost something, because in phone and email, you had to have a 'reason' to 'dial' the phone or fire off an email. Now you can just post 'this is what I did / am interested / wish today' and everyone can see and respond. And you can see what other people are up to and make a snappy, timely comment and cheer them on or validate their bad day without it being a big thing. No big whoop. Mostly I think that everyone assumes that everyone else is busy doing something more exciting than talking to you. Clearly with the amount of time everyone is spending on this and how much people seem to be enjoying it, everyone is watching a little less American Idol (or googling less medical conditions at work) and connecting again.

Who farted?

Which causes more greenhouse gas emissions, rearing cattle or driving cars?

Surprise! According to a new report published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent – 18 percent – than transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation.

So, we decided on our trip that we would make an effort to reduce the amount of meat we eat to try and offset the huge gas guzzling Nissan Titan in our driveway. Since I was vegetarian for awhile, this isn't a stretch for me. I think we can stand to reduce meat by about 75% without suffering one little bit. Andrew is secure enough in his manhood to not need a slab of meat at every meal to be satisfied and has an adventurous enough palatte to accomodate some of the wilder ethnic stuff. We've been on a long slow road for the last couple years replacing chemicals with natural stuff and choosing organic wherever we can. We're off the household chemicals except dish detergent and unscented laundry soap and there's be 0 impact except our house doens't smell like "fake pine" or 'simulated ocean breeze'.

We don't plan on eliminating meat entirely, just reducing it where it won't be missed. There is still a time and place for a nice big hunk of grilled critter. As long as its organic.

Some pictures from our trip...

Crispy Critters

We're in our final hours of our trip, we've checked out of our room and have some time to kill before we get the bus to the airport in a couple hours. Andrew just checked the weather in Ottawa and its -2. Its 34 degrees here today. Its going to suck to wake up there tommorow. I might turn up the heat and put my bathing suit on around the house anyway. We spent a little too much time in the sun trying to soak it all in today so I have a crispy fried sunburn and I can feel the heat radiating off my arms.

We have had a fabulous time. I would recommend this place to anyone looking for a nice relaxing adults only place to decompress for a week.

We thought we'd come to all kinds of big life conculsions this week with all this time to relax and think but mostly all we came up with was a brain flushed of stress. I literally sat on the beach for hours today without thinking about anything. Nothing. Totally vacant. Screensaver mode.

We decided to buy a deep freeze when we get home. I'm not sure that constitutes a major life decision. We also got some perspective on how fat we are, and how fat we aren't from watching everyone else pad around in tiny triangles of lycra (and lack thereof), so we're going to do something about that.

Two thumbs up for Catalonia Royal, Punta Cana Dominican Republic.

Hola from Paradise.

We're just past half way on our vacation and so far its surpassing our expectations. Our resort has two sides, a really large side with kids and big buffets, restaurants and a disco and big pool, very lively, lots of action. We are on the "Royal" side which is over 18, much quieter and there is a private pool, restaurant and beach section for the 100 or so rooms in this section. Its perfect - we have all the action without any of the noise. Not that there's alot of that around here either, the whole place is super quiet after 7pm.

Aside from the occasional loud smoking french Canadian who you wish you could tranquilize with a blow dart on the beach, its nice and quiet, clean and the food is generally pretty good. Its like eating at someone else's house or cottage for a week, you might not like everything they serve, but you also might stumble on something you didn't know you like.

Its been all about the beach and enjoying the peace and quiet. The staff are friendly, the people watching is great. There are lots of topless sunbathers on our beach, which isn't always a good thing depending on the age / size / elasticity of the skin of the person in question.

We did a catamaran tour with snorkling and a visit to a natural pool with carribean waters. We had too much Mama Juana, which is basically Dominican screech, and spent the next day moaning and in air conditioning. Mama didn't Juana much after that.

There are some little huts next to the beach with people selling things, I wandered over there the other day and they swoop in on you and try and sell you everything. A lady came over and braided a section of my hair in the carribean braids with little beads on the end and when I said I wasn't interested in getting the whole thing done the man said, Oh, Seniorita, you get them done and give your husband Carribean fantasy tonight - he will LOVE it.

Ah, more relaxing ahead.

Dove: Do women need to be naked to be beautiful?

We were watching the TV last night, and the Dove commercial came on (the one with all of the different sized and shaped women) and my stepkid makes a gagging noise and starts talking about how him and his stepfather think that its gross and that he really hates the one with old women - no one needs to see that. BLECH.

I agree with what Dove is trying to do. www.dove.ca I made the point to young grasshopper that commercials are designed to target the people who will actually buy the products, and men aren't big Dove consumers so why shouldn't they pick women who look like the women who buy their stuff. I'd love to see more regular selling me products, most of us aren't 20, and if you're over 30 you just look stupid trying to look 20, so lets broaden the scope and see a few more ways to look good at 30, 40, 50 and beyond. Without botox.

HOWEVER. While they get the idea across that people come in all shapes and sizes, colors, I think young grasshopper might have identified a sociological scab for me to pick.

This kid wouldn't say peep about an adult woman's body to her face. So why the scrutiny now? Because its shoved in his face. He rarely gets an opportunity to see more than arms and legs and I"m sure that's just fine by him and fine by us. I don't want other women flaunting their good in front of him either. The point is, we don't need to see naked grandmas and people's personal flabby bits to know women aren't hideous after if they're over 30 an/or weigh more than 130lbs. We all know enough women to know that's not true.

So Yay, for the happy robust ladies in their underwear and the "Pro.Age campaign with the older, wise women posing nude. But consider the context. Regular women. In a highly irregular setting of vulnerability and nakedness that most regular women wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. Do we really need to strip women down naked to see beauty? The media has spent decades peeling the clothes off beautiful women to sell stuff. Now regular women who were happy to 'hide' behind their clothes are supposed to feel great about standing around in their underwear too. I'd like to see a men's deoderant campaign with a bunch of hairy house husbands and see how beautiful everyone thinks it is.

In real life I don't think anyone else REALLY cares that much what anyone else looks like. Celebrities are paid based on their appearance and we like to look at them, but the rest of us are just schmucking along trying not to smell or get too fat and uncool. We're getting paid and valued and judged on our contributions to the world most of the time. Basic grooming and attire go a long way.

Please put some clothes on the Dove ladies.

Busy little bee.

I've discovered Claritin and now I'm Claritin clear. Just like the commercials. I'm ready to throw the windows open and take a deep breath of pollen, ride a shedding horse down the beach and laugh at a secret joke in a smokey bar amongst my chic perfumed and hairsprayed friends. Bring it on.

I'm stuffed up oh, all the time. On a good day I can breathe out of one nostril. Mostly. If I had the discipline to stay off everything on my food sensitivity list it would probably be alot better but I can't seem to make it 3 hours without sugar or wheat so I live with the constant whistle in my nose and only being able to breathe through one nostril. Until now.

One of these Claritin puppies and I can actually breathe for the WHOLE day. Out of BOTH nostrils. At the SAME time. Maybe this is not a big deal to anyone else but for me this is HUGE. ShaZAM.

With my newfound oxygen, which appeared to carry over through the night because I woke up rested after breathing all night, I was a total machine this weekend. Its incredible how much energy not breathing sucks out of you.

In other news. Cody is here and he's now slightly taller than me and his voice is practically unrecognizable now. Its lower and pretty consistent, but tonight we had a dazzling display of cracking.

He also eats about his body weight in sandwiches every 2 hours. I've been listening to all these new parents complaining about "cluster feeding" and they seem to think its over after you stop breastfeeding. I have news for you. At least breastmilk is free. Wait until they're packing away organic deli meat and artisan bread at that rate.