Hair

After five months of letting my hair grow I finally dragged myself to the salon last week. My Mum has been asking/telling me that we should get a family photograph taken during Thanksgiving because she wants to put a copy in her Christmas cards to far-flung relatives across Canada and the United States. It was then I realized I had to take action and get my roots highlighted and hair trimmed.

It was my husband who introduced me to the concept that there is only a week or two between a bad and good haircut. Basically, do not plan to get your hair cut the day before a major event in your life. Padding a week or two between your appointment and the event gives you time to figure out how to style the new cut and the highlights will look less 'stripey' and more natural. Great advice.

Five months ago my regular stylist was eight months pregnant when I last had my locks highlighted and cut. The colour was great with a full head of foil highlights, but the cut was not her best work. Perhaps it was the hormones, or maybe her feet were hurting, but she cut a layer at the back/crown of my head that was much too short considering the length of my hair. I didn't say anything because it's hair and it grows. Before I left she slipped me a card with the name of another stylist to use the next time (from the same salon) as well as the colour and toner she uses on my hair.

Because of that much too short layer at the back of my head I put off getting my hair cut as long as I could. The new stylist was awesome. The highlights look natural (partial head foil highlights) and the cut is the best I have had since going to my Hair God in Uptown Dallas. She even mentioned about the layer being too short at the back! Then she explained that it really shouldn't be that short considering the texture and length of my hair in case I had asked the other stylist to cut it like that. I explained that I had not asked for the layer to be that short and blamed it on the other stylist's pregnancy hormones.

I really love this new stylist and I will make another appointment with her to get my hair done in the future. Although I do feel bad about the other stylist, I am so happy to find this new one who really understands fine hair. Just hope it stands the test of time in the family photo shoot this weekend.

P.F. Chang's & Nordstrom Coming to Canada

With sleep in my eyes and coffee in hand, I turned the tv on to Canada A.M. to find out the local weather forecast. Yes, that's about all I watch it for and the local headlines streaming across the bottom. I almost spit out my coffee when they had a segment about P.F. Chang's restaurant opening a restaurant in Toronto. My prayers have been answered. Well, almost answered because who knows how long it will take them to open restaurants in other Canadian cities. I am still waiting for a J.Crew store to open here.

The other news is that Nordstrom's department store is planning to expand into Canada. The retail mecca will be taking over several Sears locations. I really miss Nordstrom's. Here's hoping they can bring their excellent customer service into Canada.

Scary Times

This week has seen some scary stuff take place in Canada. Yes, it is not everyday that Canada Post delivers a human foot to a postal address. Oh, and that postal address happens to be the Conservative Party Headquarters in Ottawa. (Did the postal carrier not notice the smell and blood oozing from the package???) At first I thought it might have been a stolen foot from a medical school cadaver. Then CTV Montreal was reporting that a human torso was found in a suitcase thrown in a dumpster. After DNA testing the foot and torso were linked as well as a package containing a human hand discovered at the main Canada Post sorting station. Yikes.

The emerging details of the alleged killer paint a dark picture of a narcissistic psycho. An individual craving fame so much that he filmed himself murdering and butchering another person, and then proceeded to upload it to a website. Who would do such a thing? Obviously someone striving for notoriety. Because of this I refuse to mention that monster by name. Apparently he flew to Europe the day after the murder and is on the run.

All of this makes me question what, or who, created such a monster. Was his childhood marked by severe abuse or neglect? Was he trying to prove himself through the new social media where every action is documented: I post/upload/tweet therefore I am. Maybe he believed his existence only had meaning if others noticed him.

Sometimes Canadians are smug about how safe it is in Canada, but the events of the past few days have scared us all. Oh, and there is NO WAY that a severed human foot would have made it to the Republican or Democratic Headquarters in the United States. Obviously this has highlighted how relaxed security is here and hopefully it will be taken more seriously in the future.

Coldest Day of the Year

Weather forecasters are calling for a high of -18C today, but with the windchill it will feel more like around -30C. Of course, being the coldest day of the year (so far) means that our furnace has decided to go on strike. Perhaps it is too cold, or maybe our furnace is trying to tell us off because we didn't get it tuned up in the fall, either way a sensor is being wonky. We have phoned the 'furnace guys' who checked it out 14 months ago but we are still waiting to hear back from them. Luckily it has been working since 11am and here's hoping it will continue through the night. Now our Arizona spring training trip can't arrive soon enough. Oh, to be in the desert at this very moment. Visions of cacti will be in my dreams tonight.

Sears Canada Fails

With deepest regrets, this blog is turning into a place to vent my frustration regarding the complete lack of customer service in Canada. The Canadian marketplace is where apathy resides and incompetency rules.

Sears Canada is the latest retail outlet to disappoint us. Several weeks ago we decided to take advantage of their 'Black Friday' sale and purchase a new dishwasher. The price was amazing and we were also impressed by the top ratings kenmore dishwashers received in Consumer Reports. Their saleswoman was competent without being pushy, and after checking out the competition we decided to give our money to Sears.

Everything was great until we purchased the dishwasher and service from Sears Canada dropped off the cliff just like Wile E. Coyote. We were told it would not be in until after Christmas, then last week we were pleased to receive a phone call from the sales woman telling us that the dishwasher was coming in early and she would have someone call to set up an appointment for a technician to install. We received a call Thursday to set up an installation for December 19th (today) sometime after 12pm.

Happily I cleared the space underneath the kitchen sink for the technician and waited. And waited. Hubby came home early and when we had no sign from Sears he made the phone call. Someone at Sears told us that we were NOT scheduled for delivery/technician, AND that the dishwasher would not be in until December 24....WTF? Really? So, what was that phone call scheduling delivery last week all about? Hubby demanded an explanation, and of course they did not know what was going on and said they would phone back. When they did phone back the person said that someone would be phoning tonight to schedule an installation, but when Hubby asked to speak with the manager he was told that the manager had left for the day. Yeah, right.

Sears Canada reveals their incompetency by scheduling a delivery and not showing up. Their lack of concern by not phoning to inform us that the delivery was not going to happen is systematic of a general apathy that is prevalent within Canadian retail. They do not care about the customer.

Toaster Oven Baking

It seems that parts must be ordered for our LG oven, so we may not get it fixed for another week. Since one cannot live on microwave and barbecue cooking alone we caved and bought a toaster oven last weekend.

We did a bit of research on the internet and set out to buy a Cuisinart, but when we got to the big appliance store they had none in stock in any of their stores on the east coast. None. Hmmmm....we took this to be a bad omen for the Cuisinart, but on another shelf I fell in love with a Kitchenaid model. It is basic stainless steel with good old-fashioned dials for controls and Hubby and I agreed to make it ours.

Since yesterday I have been experimenting with baking in the toaster oven. I feel like a 1950s housewife baking cookies and squares in my newfangled appliance. On Sunday, Pillsbury chocolate chip cookies were baked using the broiler pan as a cookie sheet, but I must remember to turn the temperature down in the future to compensate for the black broiler pan. Luckily I enjoy crispy cookies. Earlier today I baked Seven-Layer Squares in a 9"x9" pan and they turned out a bit too brown, so I made a note on the recipe to turn the temperature down by 25F to compensate for the glass pan. Hmmmmm, or maybe the toaster oven runs hotter than normal.

Well, I am off to try baking apple crisp in the toaster oven. Here's hoping I don't burn it.

LG Appliances Suck!

A year since we bought our new LG oven and it is not working. We still can't get over the fact that the oven was delivered to our new home on October 4, 2010 and now we can't even turn it on. No roasts, no cookies, and no apple crisp. You forget how much you use a stove and oven until yours dies.

Hubby phoned the appliance store where we bought it last year and the woman was wonderful and phoned LG for us. She returned our call and told us that LG would honour the warranty and they would send a technician to look at the oven. Awesome. LG then contacted us and we were informed that a technician would be at our home sometime on Friday. That was Tuesday.

It is now Friday and the LG technician never showed up at our home. Hubby phoned LG before 9 a.m. to confirm that a technician would be fixing our oven today, and they confirmed but could not give us a specific time. Hubby, who was working at home today, got a call-waiting beep around 11 a.m. while on a conference call and noticed it was LG. He phoned back only to be told that the technician could not make it today. When Hubby mentioned that this was unacceptable and that they should send another technician, the rep at LG replied that there is only one technician for our metro area. Guess LG has no back up plan for a technician phoning in sick.

It's Friday and we have no working stove/oven until Monday. According to LG it is not an emergency. Customers are not important to LG, and apparently making great appliances is not high on their priority list either. Of course, this is just LG Canada, perhaps LG locations in other countries are more organized with better customer service because customer service is not a priority at LG Canada.

We will not be buying another LG product ever again, and we will be advising everyone we meet to not buy LG products. Such a huge disappointment.

Sad Day

Three hours ago my Uncle Joe died. My Mother had left a message saying to phone her right away (which is never a good sign), and when I returned her call she told me that he had died. Her earlier message was to tell me that he was doing poorly while recovering in hospital from an operation yesterday. This was shocking because I had no idea he was scheduled for an operation. Sometimes my Mother forgets to tell me stuff.

Uncle Joe was a big part of my childhood. He and my late Aunt Mary lived in the village where I grew up and they always made a fuss over me. Their children were seven to ten years older than me (they were teenagers when I was in elementary school) and so I looked up to them. As a child I would sometimes walk to their home for a visit without telling my parents. I loved how they always made me feel special.

When my uncle and aunt moved to the city -- after their teenage daughter's death from cancer -- I took it personally as only a nine-year-old girl would. I was hurt that they moved away from me and slowly drifted out of my immediate life. As an adult I finally realized that they must have suffered a great deal of pain and sadness watching their daughter slowly suffer and die. They most likely wanted to escape the sad memories and start over in a new place.

Living in Texas and California the past five years meant that I didn't always see my uncle and his second wife that much. In fact, I cannot recall the exact date I last saw him, but I do remember the first thing he said to me as he walked into my parents' home: "How's my favourite niece?" and then he gave me a big hug. I feel awful that I did not see him in the time since we moved back to Canada.

Uncle Joe was a life-long Conservative supporter, and I can only assume he was happy on Monday to see our cousin re-elected as a Member of Parliament and the Conservatives getting a majority government. I imagine him smiling down from heaven with my aunt and cousin by his side.

Let It Snow

Since snow began falling this December I have become obsessed with shovelling it. We hired a contractor to clean our driveway but we are responsible for our front steps, and so I have become focused on cleaning off snow and ice.

Perhaps it is because we lived without snowstorms for five years and I dread walking through deep snow that I have decided to wage war against it. Even the back deck gets shovelled -- just so Hubby has free access to the barbecue because nothing should come between a man cooking over an open flame.

The worst day this December was when it poured rain last Sunday and I decided to go out and shovel the slush from our driveway. Rain-soaked snow is mighty heavy, but I did it -- although it took most of that afternoon for my wool coat to dry off.

Looking out the window I can see the flakes tumbling from the sky. Guess I should go out again in a couple of hours and shovel it off the steps. Just three more months of it.

Back in Canada

Hubby and I are back in Canada. I would love to say that we are unpacked and settled into our new home, but my Mum taught me not to lie. Out house is littered with moving boxes yet to be opened and objects placed here and there. We have Ontario license plates and we are waiting on our new Ontario driver's license, which presents a problem if we have to show photo identification. We still haven't tried to get new OHIP cards since we cannot get health insurance until we have lived in Ontario for three months. Here's hoping we get them before I need my six month mammogram in January. Oh, the joy of public healthcare and dealing with provincial bureaucrats. Welcome to Ontario.

Moving On

September has been crazy for Hubby and I. The big news is that we will be bidding the US farewell and moving back to Canada. Luckily Hubby is able to transfer to the Canadian office of the high-tech start-up where he works at marketing techy stuff to other tech people -- if I tried to explain the techy stuff my head would explode.

We are moving in about six weeks. Yikes. My tummy just lurched. So many things to do in so little time. But, despite the fact that I am prone to high-drama, I am sure we can get everything accomplished. We have bought a house in a suburban town West of Ottawa (I'll be a West-end Girl!) that will officially be ours as of October. So, we have a place to live. We have also contacted moving companies regarding quotes and have narrowed it down to one. This move will be financed by us since Hubby's boss refuses to pay for it as Hubby requested the transfer, and that really makes me regret moving my Great Grandmother's piano across North America. But, since it is a family heirloom I feel compelled to bring it back to Canada.

The last month or two we have been trying to visit places in Northern California we love, like Healdsburg in Sonoma county, and Cambria near Paso Robles. I hate to mention Cambria as it's my secret. It's a sleepy, rustic, artist colony along the coast off Highway 1 that hasn't been overrun with fast food chains or big hotels. I love Moonstone Beach and walking along the boardwalk. Healdsburg has an amazing bed and breakfast called Honor Mansion that we hope to visit in the future if we're back in California, and one of the best restaurant I've ever eaten at, Dry Creek Kitchen
Here's hoping we can find awesome dining experiences in the Ottawa-area.

Much to Hubby's dismay, I have also been trying to get my fill of Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom's before we move. What will I do in Ottawa? Most likely I will face major retail withdrawal going cold-turkey from these two department stores. Honestly, I am not sure the Holt Renfrew in Ottawa can hold a candle to Bloomingdale's or to Nordstrom's.

The next few months will be full of stress and excitement as we prepare for the big move. Hope we won't suffer reverse-culture shock from trying to live in Canada again after almost five years living in the US. Time to move on.