My gripe with Cartoons!

Okay, so a teeny little bout of insomnia has been keeping me up at night for, oh, just a week, nothing really.

In a desperate attempt to be either bore myself to sleep or keep my sanity, I've been tuning into the Family Channel in the wee hours, one of the few networks that has programming 24 hours rather than infomercials, which tend to keep me awake, or shows that I'm far to embarrassed to watch.

During the last few nights, er mornings, er whatever! I came to a conclusion that I didn't realize actually bothered me this much. And since the Family Channel is 90% Disney, I guess Disney gets picked on.

Who, in cartoon world, gets to decide which animals are allowed to talk and which animals are subject to being pets to other animals?! It's unfair I tell you! And no quoting C.S. Lewis Chantelle, those animals were real, not cartoons.

For example, Goofy, I do love Goofy. But who decided that it was fair for Goofy to wear clothes, have a job, a son (did we ever find out who Max's mother was?), a house, a car, other animal friends, and an ability to talk (well, sort of) and Pluto has to walk on all fours, can only bark and growl, eat gruel, and has to be mastered by a rodent (no offence Mickey). Like, really, is that fair? They're both dogs! Doesn't Pluto ever get jealous having to look at Goofy when he visits?

But that's just one example. There are so many situations where cartoon animals have pets. We wouldn't walk around with naked humans on leashes would we? Well, not normal people and not in public, who knows what happens in some of those wacky clubs. But still, it'd be the same thing wouldn't it?

It's perfectly fine for humans to have pets, as long as we treat them well and love them. But isn't it incredibly degrading for pets to be owned by animals. IT'S CRUELTY I TELL YOU!!!

Jingle would have a panic attack if her owner was a giant mouse!

So there, I said my peace, I may start a movement, or I may get some sleep and regain my sanity. We'll see.

Elizabethtown

This post is really more about a personal wish than the movie, but I figured I better explain the movie a bit.

I originally figured I'd watch the movie purely because it starred Orlando Bloom, but it ended up being a really sweet, very quirky, completely adorable movie. It's basically about a guy, who father passes away, and his journey to retrieve his father's body, plan a funeral and in the meantime, meet the girl of his dreams (Kirsten Dunst). I highly recommend the movie, it's really cute.

So, how does this movie turn into a personal wish? Well, you have to watch the movie to find out the details, but lets just say, it has one of the best funeral memorials I have ever seen. Sadly, I have been to many funerals, but I usually don't find them sad. Yes, I mourn for loved ones, but as my family knows, it's more about celebrating them and their lives to me than it is missing them.

Well, Elizabethtown has a scene, which is the memorial/funeral of the lead characters father. And its exactly what I would want for my own memorial. It became a party, a celebration. The Widow ended up giving a beautiful speech that was more of a comedy act. She ended up dancing and singing and enjoy life. A nephew of the deceased got on stage with his rock band and brought down the house. By the end, everyone was laughing and celebrating and enjoying themselves, and those around them. Okay, so ignore the fact that the whole memorial went down in flames, literally. I wouldn't want a paper dove setting on fire and ending the celebration early. But, the point would be, I wouldn't want people to be sad. Bring in a band, bring in a Karaoke Machine. Serve breaded mushrooms and wine (my family would understand that one). Just be together, remember the good times, not just with me, but every good time in your life. There is a big difference between tears of sadness, and tears of joy. You would all get your time to mourn me in your own way, but together, cry tears of joy. Be Happy! Celebrate.

Now, as I don't plan to have this day come for a great many years, I don't want anyone making plans right now. But as I don't think the internet is going anywhere anytime soon, this will hopefully be here as a reference 70 years from now. (Yup, that'd make me 98, I'm not optimistic enough for 100, so 98 it is). Or maybe a loved one will simply read this and remember this for the future.

The reality is, none of never know when our time is coming, so each moment should be lived to the fullest. That's not always easy, and we all fail at that task sometimes, but it's worth trying. And it's important to be prepared. Not live in fear of dying, but make our wishes known.


That's my wish.

New foods, gotta try it!

Okay, so the weekends are my time to let loose and really cook well. You know, make the stuff that takes hours, that you just can't make during the week unless you want to eat at midnight. But, in trying to eat healthy and still have a decent meal during the week, I tend to try things that are quick and easy and see how they well they work out.

Now, I rarely eat beef or steaks, not really my thing, but I'm a constant fan of the Lou's Roast Beef au Jus. Pull it out of the freezer in the morning, nuke for 7 minutes at dinner time and you have a fair serving of beautifully shaved Roast Beef, free of fat and sinue. And a delicious au jus to join it. Boil few potatoes, mash up with my instant garlic potatoe powder (thanks Peewee for buying me that, use it all the time), and cook some veggies and you have a great meal in less that 20 minutes. And if you are only 1 or 2 people, you'll have plenty of meat for Roast Beef Sandwhiches the next morning. Maple Leaf makes a good beef in gravy but I like the Lou's for the au jus. It's lighter and more flexible.

I'm also not really a turkey lover but since it's so good for you, I try to find ways to sneak it in every once in a while. So I found another 10 minute meat. Maple Leaf's Turkey Breast in Sundried Tomato and Oregano Sauce. Yes, it is a decadent as it sounds. And it's a big honking Turkey Breast. You could easily cut this thing up for 4 people and it's only $4.97 at Walmart.

The meat dinners are huge in the stores right now but if you look at the ingredients on the packages, they really are not as bad as you would think. They are not as loaded with preservatives as I thought they would. Any fresh meat is always better but if you can't spend hours roasting a beef yourself during the week, you can rest assured that these will do the trick, just make sure you serve it with some healthy goodies like veggies.

And the final discovery for the past little while. I have officially found the best frozen perogies. Okay, so you can really only eat perogies on days when you're not worried about calorie intake, but every good Ukranian needs perogies occassionally to keep our Ukranian blood flowing. It's a requirement. And they are versatile. But, as anyone who has made them knows, it's not practical to make perogies at home all the time. So to get our fix, we try to find good frozen perogies, which isn't always easy.

Well, again a Walmart invention, I haven't seen them anywhere else yet, there is a brand that truly takes the cake. Cheemo Perogies. They come in 2kg bags for $3.97 (not bad if you ask me) and they are extremely flexible for cooking. Stuffed to the brim, they boil very well for your traditional butter and onions meal, they fry perfectly, and for a special treat, wrap them with butter and margarine in tinfoil and bbq them. Mmmm, yummy.

So there you go, so new food ideas for you all (unless you've already tried these or don't have a walmart to buy them at).

Jingle, again...

Okay, I think we've left the birthday wishes up long enough, I'm sure my father has seen it by now, so now, back to blogging.

So Jingle has a new thing for sleeping lately. It appears that the bed is just now enough for her for sleeping. Now, she has decided that she needs to sleep on the pillow. It's quite cute actually, and quite nice to wake up with her adorable face and loving eyes right in my face (unless she's facing the other way, then I wake up really quickly). Only problem... the pillow is starting to get a permanent groove in it that I can't seem to fluff out, and now I need to wash my sheets every day or so. It was fine when it was just me on the sheets, I don't shed much, but now, after a day, I have one very furry pillowcase and some slightly ruffled sheets. There goes my hydro bill. Cold Water Tide, here we come, save the day!

Again, its actually quite cute, but before, I at least had hope that Jingle would settle for sleeping between me and my yet-unmet-future-husband. Now that she needs a whole pillow to herself, I'm either going to need a Kingsize bed with lots of pillows, or I'm going to be sleeping alone for the rest of my life.

Someone said to me the other day, "why did you ever let her on the bed, now she'll never leave and she'll control the bed". Well, to that person, all I can say is, even though I may gripe a little about Jingle's control over the bed, I couldn't imagine it any other way. It just wouldn't be the same if she slept in the living room all night long.

So there is my new little Jingle thing. Man, do I love that cat!

Happy Birthday to Granpa!!

So mommy has gone to bed and I finally get another chance to write my own blog. Today was grandpa's (mommy's Dad's) birthday! I got a chance to wish him a happy birthday on the phone yesterday as mommy called him, but I wanted to officially put it in writing.

So happy birthday Grandpa, I hope Holly and Peewee spoiled you on your special day!

And here's to many more birthdays!

Love you,
And mommy loves you too, but she's asleep right now and can't say that for herself.

Jingle

Wishlist!

So many many people are trying to come to terms with the expected release date of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on DVD.

The date has been announced, revoked, announced again and then completely unknown.

As our pals at Wonderday.ca announced in one of their blogs, the newest rumour is that the release will be November 12th of this year.

I'm only going to say one thing about this: If this is true, and this is the release date, it's awfully close to a certain bloggers birthday. HINT, HINT, HINT!!!

And if anyone doesn't understand that, or get the hint, then I give up and no one really knows me.

Goodnight all of you!