Mmmm strawberries

Yesterday when we went grocery shopping we picked up some strawberries for the first time this season. I decided to clean them tonight and was surprised by the size of some of them. I would say that there were a few that were almost as big as the palm of my hand. I had to wonder if they are genetically modified.

Like most things, this reminded me of an episode of the Simpsons. The only clip of it I could find on youtube.com was a four minute clip, and it is funny, but the first minute and a bit are all that are necessary to make my point.

MTAS AGM

This morning was the annual general meeting for the Massage Therapist Association of Saskatchewan (MTAS). I skipped out on last year's meeting because it was in Regina and I decided that I would rather go to Swift Current with Jay than Regina by myself. I think these meetings are rather silly. I know that they need to have order so they can run smoothly, but sometimes all the technical words and whatnot just seem so unnecessary. I thought it was funny when they asked who was opposed to a motion that this one guy was opposed to pretty much everything. I honestly think he woke up this morning and decided to be disagreeable at this meeting. At least it was just one guy out of 150 or so and didn't hold us up. But at the end of the meeting when we were trying to decide what date next year's meeting should be, he got up and said it shouldn't be on the last weekend in April (when it usually is) because it's the last weekend to get taxes done. COME ON, if you can't get your taxes done before the last possible second it's your own fault :P

There really wasn't much exciting at this meeting, but it was good to hear what is going on with the negotiations between MTAS and SGI and WCB. Although it doesn't sound like there will be any fee increases in the next while. Currently most RMTs in Saskatoon charge $30-35 for a half hour treatment, and SGI only will pay $25 for a half hour treatment, and WCB pays $28. It has been that way since I became an MTAS member almost three years ago, and I hope that they will start to reconsider and get with the times.

Anyone have a truck I can borrow?

Did you hear that the federal government has banned incandescent light bulbs? Looks like we will need to stock up before they disappear. *sigh* Those fluorescent bulbs drive me nuts! How frustrating!

I am totally hooked on playing Canasta on the computer. I think it might be fun to play with real people, but the scoring looks quite complex.

Nightmares

When I was a kid I had quite a few nightmares. Sometimes they were about Freddy Krueger, tornadoes or the clown from the movie It. They were always quite disturbing. Thursday night I had a more 'adult' nightmare. It wasn't about my family dying, or even getting in a terrible car crash....it was about granite counter tops. I dreamed that Jason and I had decided to put in granite counter tops and after they did it they charged us $40,000 for it. I was quite appalled and woke up feeling quite upset. People's fears sure change as they grow up.

I drove by our lot today on the way home from work and...

THEY ARE DIGGING!

WOOHOO!

I did my CPR and First Aid recert today. It went by surprisingly quickly and was actually quite enjoyable. There have been a lot of changes made to the program this past year and they were definitely good ones. As my instructor put it, the changes make it easier to perform so more people will feel confident to do it when necessary instead of feeling unsure of themselves. Instead of having different numbers of compressions and breaths for adults, children and infants, it is all the same now. We also got to learn how to use the AEDs (automated external defibrillator) which was really neat. We learned that since they were introduced that the rate of survival for someone who's heart stops has gone from 5-10% (with CPR) to 65-70% (with the AED).

One more thing that I learned (I think I may have learned this in school, but forgot about it) is the AED (or doctors in the hospital with their fancy little paddles) do not shock people who have no heart beat. So on ER when they see the flat line and then break out the paddles to shock them it's not accurate. The AED will shock a person in 2 circumstances: either V-fib (chambers of the heart are beating erratically not allowing blood to pass through the heart in the way it should) or V-tach (heart is beating so rapidly that the heart cannot fill with blood before it pumps). And when it shocks the heart it actually makes the heart stop beating. Once it is stopped the cells in the heart that create the electric impulses that cause the heart beat are able to 'reset' and start beating regularly again. Just a common misconception that I think is neat.

It's stuff like that, that I really enjoyed learning in massage school. The way the heart beats, and the little features of the heart that allow the blood to be squeezed out the way it should. Another one that really fascinated me was the process of how hearing works. With those tiny little bones and the tympanic membrane and the perilymph. So cool :) Really makes a person appreciate the creation of the human body. God thought of everything!

An Inconvenient Truth

On Wednesday evening Jason and I watched the documentary An Inconvenient Truth. For those not familiar with it here is a plot summary:

"Director Davis Guggenheim eloquently weaves the science of global warming with Al Gore's personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change. A longtime advocate for the environment, Gore presents a wide array of facts and information in a thoughtful and compelling way." from IMDB

I would have to admit that I have been a bit of a skeptic about global warming up to this point. Not that I am hopping on the bandwagon now, but you have to wonder about it. I have no doubt that there are more people on the earth than there have ever been, creating more pollution than has ever been created before. It's got to have some effect on the earth. All of a sudden, watching news reports of tornadoes, hurricanes and extreme temperatures seem a lot more tied into global warming for me. I wondered if there really were more storms and extreme weather temperatures now, or if I just pay more attention to it as an adult than I did as a teenager or child. It will definitely be interesting to see the repercussions of our careless treatment of the earth, though it does sound like a lot of countries are taking steps to lower harmful emissions. You have to wonder if it's too late.

I will leave you with this ad that Jason and I heard about on John Gormley one morning a couple of months ago. I don't think this is going to make people react in a positive way, but I thought it was interesting nonetheless.

Don't ask me, I just work here

This Sunday I am taking a recertification course for my first aid and CPR. On April 30th my current certificate will expire. It's hard to believe that it's been almost 3 years since I graduated from massage school! The recert I am taking is offered at the U of S through the College of Kineseology aquatics department. I got a little bit of information about it shortly after I registered about a month ago. I thought though, that I would call today and ask a few clarification questions.

I am not that familiar with that part of the U of S campus so I asked her where the PAC building was located. She proceeded to tell me that the course was in room 232 in the PAC, which was upstairs on the 2nd floor. Then I repeated my question about where the PAC is located, then she finally clued in. I had a couple of more questions for her, and she seemed very disinterested and not very helpful. I felt like she had the attitude "don't ask me, I just work here". Very frustrating! But hopefully Jason can get to the U of S to pick up my parking pass (that they should have mailed to me, but didn't) today, and on Sunday I can get the course done with for another 3 years.

We went to Fandango to choose our lighting for our new house today. There are quite a few stairs there, but Rick was quite helpful in hauling Jay up and down the stairs so we were thankful. I think that our selections were quite nice and classy looking. The hardware in our house will be brushed nickel, so we went with a corresponding lighting scheme. That is a pretty neat store! They have so many different kinds of lights and even some fountains and artwork. We also found out today that because we built a house with Fraser that we have a lifetime discount (wholesale price, which is 20-40% off retail) at Fandango. I would definitely go back there! We were even very close to staying within our lighting allowance. I think we went over by about sixty dollars, but that does include light bulbs for all the fixtures....the things you don't think of. I suppose if you had to replace ALL the lights in your house at the same time it might cost around $100. We also drove by our lot today and there has been no digging done yet. Hopefully soon....

Opinions please?

This morning we are going to the cabinet place to pick out our cabinets. I was just wondering what you thought about this...

Our flooring is mainly darker colours (including some hardwood that is a darker oak), should we try to match our cabinets to the darker wood, or go with something lighter to contrast with the darker flooring? Just wondering what your opinions are. I was also curious what you think about railings in those aspects?

I am sure we will have our cabinets picked out before I hear your responses, but I am just curious what other people think. I have never decorated a house before, and had these many choices. It is fun, but also sometimes a little tough because you know that these cabinets, flooring, railings, etc will be in the house for years to come and you don't want to have regrets.