Red Sox Pumpkin Carving?

What the heck is the deal with all the people that have reached this blog by searching “red sox pumpkin carving” in several search engines? Are the Red Sox going to carve pumpkin tonight or soon? Is this a new activity in Boston? Why are people looking for this particular combination of words?

Weird!

Superman having a coffee at Tim Hortons? Shrek and Fionna waiting for the Queen Streetcar? Jackie Onassis walking down Yonge St.? Witches at the Bloor and Yonge subway station? Bart Simpson lining up at Shoppers Drug Mart?

These are a few of the things I saw tonight on my way home.

Happy Halloween!

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World Series

Well so long for my little theory about Baseball Being a Big Business. I’m glad the Red Sox won, though. It had been a long time and they’re a good team.

Pumpkin carving contest

Tomorrow is the Flatiron and Firkin’s Pumpkin Carving Contest. I just came back from Shopper’s Drug Mart where I got pumpkin carving utensils. This time I am determined that me, or someone from my team (Clara, Kelly, Ildiko) is going to win the contest. Wish us good luck!

Red Sox Vs. Cardinals -Game 4

So the Red Sox have won three games in a row of the World Series 2004. Tonight might be the decisive game, the one that might break the Bambino’s Curse. Apart from everything, there is going to be a total lunar eclipse tonight during the game.

Loyal readers might remember that I am a big fan of the Toronto Blue Jays, and the Red Sox are our natural rivals. Though this time, I prefer the Red Sox to win the series rather than the Cardinals. Anyway, I bet they are not going to win the game tonight, my reasoning is the following: baseball is a business, a big business. If three games out of the seven in the series were spared, with the Red Sox winning tonight, there would be a lot of money lost on sponsorship, stadium ticket sales, etc. I am sure they are going to win tonight and probably one more time, to finally win the World Series on the 6th or 7th game.

We’ll see tonight what happens.

I just came from the supermarket where I ran into a friend (I am thinking that the Dominion store on Front and Church is one of the most popular supermarkets in town, I am always running into people there). I hadn’t seen her since December, but we’ve been in touch just sending emails and saying hi. She told me she’s been sick and she didn’t want to specify about it, she doesn’t know if she’s going to come to my Vampire Party because she doesn’t know how she’s going to be feeling that day. She also told me that she doesn’t want to make any plans because she’s been running around going to see doctors and not feeling well. Now that I think of it, she also look skinnier than usual. I am worried about her and don’t know what to do about it. I hope she gets better.

Shoplifting Incident

Yesterday I had my first shoplifting incident while volunteering in the Gift Shop. I was pretty scared and nervous, but I confronted the person and called security. First I didn’t know what to do because she was denying it, but I found the merchandise in her pocket, so I told the other volunteer to please press the “panic button” and security came. It’s the first time that something like this happens and I really didn’t know what to do or how to act.

Ontario’s Recycling Program

The Toronto Star has an article today about how one billion aluminium cans from Ontario are not being recycled but sent to landfills. The environment commissioner, Gordon Miller, said that one of the solutions is to bring in a deposit-return system for aluminum cans as they have in almost every other province. They go on explaining the whole problem and how Michigan’s landfills are not going to accept any recyclabele materials in our garbage anymore. The commissioner also said that

“the province must push for an aggressive plan to deal with the mounds of discarded cellphones, computers, televisions, VCRs and other electronic waste piling up in landfills that can leach heavy metals”.

I couldn’t agree more with this last statement.

Last week I got a new CD burner and removed the one I previously had in my computer. I realized that it was made mostly of recyclable material and that it shouldn’t just be put in the garbage. I looked at the instructions for the Blue Box but it said nothing about electronic equipment disposal. I went to the Solid Waste Management information in the City of Toronto’s website but, again, I couldn’t find anything about electronic equipment disposal. I saw the “Contact Us” information and took the time to write an email to accessto@toronto.ca asking what to do with the old CD burner and an old hard disk I had to dispose. I don’t want to just create more litter when these things can be recycled. Well, to the date they have not replied to me, not even acknowledging my email.

So, should I have contacted the province, instead of the city? Are they not working together? Are they going to spend all the time blaming each other like they have been doing lately and getting almost nothing done?

Why did I bother to call them? I should just have put my old CD burner and my old hard disk in the garbage and have them sent to Michigan, or shouldn’t I? What’s the answer here? Why is no one at City Hall paying attention to our litter concerns? Most of us just want to help with the whole trash problem and be good citizens.

Duck trauma

So I just found out that Riri loves ducks. I used to have a duck as a pet when I was a child. We bought him from a street vendor in Mexico City when I was like 10, my sister was like 7 or so. He was such a cute little duckling. He grew up to become a nice white duck with a nice bright orange beak. The woman who worked at our house used to feed him tomatoes, and he spat all of the seeds and after a while we had a nice big tomato plant around his food plate. Oh the good nice days of childhood! One summer my sister and I went to a summer house with our grandparents for a whole month or more, and when we came back my mother told us that she had taken Patty (that’s how we named our duck) to the zoo. He was now very happy surrounded by a lot of ducks and having a lot of fun. Every time we drove close to the zoo I turned my head and thought that my duck was there living happy with all his friends.

Then some years passed. About 15, actually. A couple of years ago, me being a grown-up already, I was talking to my mother about all this saying something like “Remember that duck we had that you took to the zoo?”, next thing I know she says “Oh, I didn’t take him to the zoo, we ate it, the maid killed him and we cooked him Chinese style”. OH MY GOD!! This was a shock to me and everything I grew up believing in! MY PARENTS ATE MY PET-DUCK! I was like 25 and had a NEW childhood trauma! How could my mother have done this to us? Had she no heart? And the maid… I mean she used to feed him, she’s the one who got him so big and healthy!

I called my sister in San Diego and told her the real fatidic ending of our pet-duck Patty. Even after 15 years she cried on the phone! Only she and I understand the pain of finding out what really happened!

No wonder I am deranged and will probably have to spend a big portion of my adult earnings in therapy. This is a sad, sad story.