You got a problem...there must be someone you can sue?!

Sometimes litigation stories make me nuts.  I know there are valid circumstances where people need to sue for real damage done to them or loved ones.  But often we see ridiculous examples of people blaming others for everything.  We are becoming a "no responsibility" society..  It's not my fault I drank to much and used poor judgment.  It's not my fault I found my penis in 23 other women...I have a "problem". 

Well apparently its also not our faults for getting fat either.  Hey...I have excess pounds that I have been gradually shedding, but I certainly do not blame others for my inability to stop stuffing chocolate in my face.  I accept I have a "mild" addiction to all things sweet : )

But hey, why blame yourself when you can blame "MacDonalds".  It worked for this guy.  He sued and got 18K out of the deal because they made him gain 65 pounds.  After all he had to sample the food, and they had the audacity to offer him free lunches.  What is a guy to do!??

Ups and Downs

The last few weeks have had their ups and their downs.  To make a long story short, Dad has heart attack, mom rushes him to hospital.  Dad gets transferred to City and gets stent put in.  Dad has too many blockages now and needs a bypass.  He waits in hospital to be transferred to Mazankowski clinic.  He gets transferred and gets triple bypass.  He doesn't do well after the surgery, is bleeding too much, bad vitals and almost dies.  He finally comes out of the induced sleep better and blood starts to clot.  He starts to sit up and talk, gradually gets the million tubes and wires taken out and bodily functions start up again.  Woo hoo!

So things are looking up.  I will be glad to not see either of those hospitals for a while even though the staff were amazing and so nice.  I'm also glad to know that my dad may have been given some extra years to enjoy life because of the great work they do.  I know that many of my friends that are even younger than me have lost a parent and so I feel really grateful and relieved that I get to spend more time with my dad.

Hospitals

Nobody wants to be in the hospital, but if you need care, its a great place to be.  My dad just had a heart attack a few days ago.  My mom rushed him to the hospital about 20 minutes away from their rural home, and that hospital brought him by ambulance to the Royal Alex. 

Before my mom and I could get to the hospital and see where he was in the process, he had already been to the Cath lab and had an Angiogram and a Stent put into his artery.  They then moved him up to a recovery room for monitoring and care.  This is the third such go round for my dad and this was his 7th stent.  My dad is in good shape as he has never been overweight, never smoked or drank much at all.  He eats ridiculously healthy, however, he has the dreaded "genetics".  His dad died in his 40s of heart issues, my dad is now 70, so in the scheme of things he is doing well. 

Unfortunately he has a few major arteries that are 90% blocked and others on the way, so he is now waiting in the hospital for a transfer to the new Mazenkowski centre for a Bypass.  I am hopeful all will be well, he will get the bypass and if no problems will likely feel wonderful once he has all that blood flowing like it should.

I have to say though, that our family has had great care at the Royal Alex and  University hospitals.  The Royal Alex is a crazy place if you have ever been to their emergency room.  If you are not dying you may spend several hours waiting for care.  You will likely sit by someone that is bleeding from the latest bar fight they were in.  If you get into a bed in the emergency area, the guy that drank aqua velva will be yelling out expletives at all the nursing staff.  I swear that guy has been there every time!  And of course there are the people that clog up the system that have a cold or flu that should look up the term Emergency in the dictionary.

However, having said all that, if the staff see you are in cardiac arrest or some real life threatening situation, they are on it.  I have seen staff at that hospital run, and juggle so many patients it boggles the mind.  So as my dad waits in the hospital for his bypass, I know he is in the best care.  I know our health care system is not perfect, but I for one am glad we have equal care for all people and that my mom doesn't have to now worry about paying a huge medical bill on top of worrying about my dad.

Fondue - back from the 70's

Last night we went to a new Restaurant in Edmonton called the Melting Pot.  Apparently these have been around in the U.S., but this is the first one to open here.  The premise of the dining experience - Fondue!

Now fondue had its day in the 70's at the  home party.  People would dig out their sunset gold or avacado green fondue sets to have a good time.  Eventually the lowly fondue pot fell out of favour and became fodder for the garage sale.

Well, its back and its being served at the Melting Pot.  Gone are the candles and open flame burners, they have been replaced by an in-table heat source.  The colored pots are now a sleek stainless steel.  But the fondue experience is still much the same. All of the tables in the melting pot are fairly private, with cozy booths for two or private rooms for larger parties.  The staff know their stuff and are busy keeping all of the fondue components moving along.

Because we were with a larger group, all of the parts were pre-ordered, but there are a number of options you can select to customize your fondue experience.  Our evening started with a Cheese course.  I really like cheese, so you can't go wrong here.  The servers make up a number of mixtures, we had a cheddar pot as well as a spinach artichoke mix.  We were brought small plates and bowls of bread, apples taco chips and vegetables.  Each person gets a set of colored fondue forks and an eating fork.  Many of us at the table took a few dips to realize we were supposed to dip with the fondue fork, and them remove the item to your plate and eat with your other fork.  At first we were just eating off our fondue fork and then re-dipping!  GASP..that is the proverbial double dip!  OK, so shoot us, we are fondue newbs.  We got the ettiquite after a few double dips.

Next was the meat course. Our cheese fondue pots were replaced with hot oil and one with steaming vegetable broth with citrus.  They also provided two types of batter for dipping and a plate of assorted hunks of meat - chicken, beef, shrimp and salmon.  We were also given a number of dipping sauces for said meat.  I have to say, I enjoyed the cheese course, but for me the meat course was nothing to write home about.  Not because the restaurant didn't do a great job of the set-up, but because a hunk of plain meat dipped in hot oil isn't really all that great.  In some cases the batter would fall off in the pot with all the fondue fork fury!   The oil cooked the meat a bit better, it only needed 2 minutes, but the broth was tastier with the veggies (like mushrooms or broccoli).

Then it was time for the chocolate!  Now we are talking.  We had one that was chocolate with some penut butter stirred in, and a second pot that was white chocolate and banana.  The servers brought us fresh forks and some plates of dippables that included strawberries, banana, marshmallow, brownie, cheesecake and pineapple.  This was really tastey - how can you go wrong here. 

As I say, there were many options so you could really customize to what you like best.  They also had some really nice looking drinks.  Not cheap, but pretty impressive and apparently delicious.  One that was popular was the Yin & Yang.  This just looked amazing and was concocted with White Godiva Liqueur, Creme de CaCao and Ice Cream. 

This is definitely the kind of place to go to do something different, the whole process takes a bit of time, so you will have a leisurely dinner.  Personally my preference was the cheese and chocolate courses.  This isn't a cheap night out, so prepare for at least $50/person but a nice evening out.  I am not sure how long fondue will be here this time around, but this restaurant was packed and is apparently full most of the time.  So the next time you are looking for something a little bit different on a night out, give it a try.

Black or White

Why do so many people only see things in black or white?  A recent visit to the Oilsands by James Cameron really made me think more about this.  Lots of comments from Albertans were "Who does he think he is?", "Go home and mind your own business" type of comments.

I hate when people are narrow minded.  Why do people have to be either in the pro-oilsands or the bleeding heart environmentalist camps?  It seems so black or white, with no shades of gray.

I for one don't have a problem with James Cameron or others taking a closer look at our Oil sands.   Yes I know that this sector fuels the Alberta economy, always has and likely always will.  Politicians have always bent over backwards to keep these companies happy so they will stay and fill the provincial coffers. 

Yes, I also drive a vehicle and am a consumer of these products, so it would be hypocritical of me to say shut them down.  However, I am also a citizen of this province and pay taxes and expect the government to also take people concerns into consideration as well. 

People are so worried that they will not have these jobs that they are willing to let these companies do whatever they want.  They can pollute the air and poison our water and we just accept it.  They can use tons of fresh water to extract the precious from the soil and we don't say a word.  So what if we deplete our resources or more people get cancer. 

I wish we could rely on these companies to take a little bit of their profits and come up with ways to do things better that  have less environmental impact.  But as we know, this is usually not the case.  Unfortunately it will take more James Cameron visits, more U.S. and European scrutinization of our environmental record to make things better.  Finally, the first tailings pond has been re-claimed.  It was created in 1967!

So I welcome the magnifying glass.  I believe these companies have top scientists, money and research at their disposal.  Alternative methods of extraction have already been found, but until we set the bar a bit higher, nothing will improve.  There is nothing like a little bad publicity to make companies clean up their act, or to make the government make them clean up their act.  Many oil and gas companies will send their exorbitant profits back to their home countries at the end of the day but those of us who live here will reap what they sow, both good and bad.

So rather than get our panties in a bunch lets always remember that we can do better, and for those people with children, we have to do better!

Sunday Walk

What a lovely weekend this has been.  I talked in an earlier post about fall being one of my favorite times of year.  When the weather is like this, it sure is! 

Today Chad and I went for a nice walk across the Sturgeon River to a local coffee shop.  Lots of people, young and old are out walking, skateboarding or bike riding.  The leaves are mostly gone off of the trees now and are crunchy on the ground.  I like the sound they make when you shuffle through them.

This year for the Childrens festival some sculptures were brought in and displayed behind City Hall.  They are made of stone and are really beautiful.  My favorite is the bear.  She is so smooth and heart warming, her caption says - "Mother Bear Prays for Earth Healing".    The sculptures were meant to be on display temporarily, but because they have been so popular and well received, the city has agreed to purchase them and they will stay in their current location.

 

When we got home we started to bring some of the patio furniture in and gradually prepare the yard for winter.  I always like to get a mum and put it in our front porch pot to help extend the season a bit.  The summer flowers all died after the frost, so the mum I planted will last until the snow balls fly. I am one of those people that likes to kind of reflect the seasons on the front porch. 

So Mother Nature, keep the nice weather coming!  

Technology - The Good, Bad and the Ugly

I grew up in a world that didn't have a ton of technology.  No computers or cell phones, just basic TV, radio and that's about it.  Obviously in the last decade or so, great leaps have been made and now new generations of kids will never understand what it is like to NOT have cell phones and computers.

I sometimes can't help but think maybe my simple childhood was better.  I am sure kids now would disagree as I am sure they cannot fathom life without constant connectivity, but I can.  Obviously there are great advantages to some of the technology.  You need information on anything?  Just google it.  Your car dies on the side of the road, pull out the cell phone.  Need to share pictures of your kids with family far away, put them on facebook. 

I understand the draw to an extent, but now we are seeing a whole new world of opportunities for pedophiles and bullies.  Recently a young man committed suicide because his roommate video taped him privately kissing another male and posted the video for everyone to see.  How humiliating for the young man and who knew if he had even shared with anyone that he was gay, and now it was public for everyone to mock. 

In another incident a woman's ex boyfriend took a photo off her facebook page and posted an ad on Craig's list saying she "an aggressive man with no concern or regard for women".  Next thing you know some weirdo showed up at her home and brutally raped her.  The only good part of this story is that both the rapist and boyfriend got 60 years in jail. (sometimes americans do justice better than we do).

Now don't get me wrong, I think people can be evil without the help of technology, but there is this disturbing trend toward being a douchebag because of anonymity. Chad and I both play W|OW and often in groups people can be terrible.  They say terrible things and act maliciously towards others. Now I am a big girl and I can take it.  I can put them on /ignore or rationalize that they must have been dropped on their head at some point.  But I often wonder about the young kids that are playing and being exposed to the hate.  Or the poor dood who is more fragile or has poor self esteem already.  Usually the people that behave these ways would never do it in person.  They do it with the "Cloak of the Coward" on and feel superior to others.  Personally if I am in a group and someone is nasty to others, I tell them to shut up.  I won't stand by and put up with abuse of myself or others. 

I know technology isn't going away, but I hope we can figure out how to fit it into our lives and get back to some compassion and manners.