BT Edmonton Blogs

If you are bored, raise your hand. Can’t? Too busy trolling the Internet looking for post-election post-mortem?  Looking for articles by pollsters trying to explain away what went wrong?  It’s been a week since #abvote ended and well…it’s a little slow.

Don’t get me wrong; the negativity was overwhelming. The misinformation and visible hatred was horrific to watch.  But, as much as I cursed the negativity and the drama, it was exhilarating and in a masochistic way… kind of fun.  I know I am not the only one.  I see you out there one week later…sharing articles. Writing blogs. Trashing your opposing political parties. You still have those twibbons on your twitter avatar and your party’s colours on your Facebook profile. You miss it too.

This was the (seemingly) closest race we have had in a while. After 41 years of the same government a lot of people and especially the media were looking for a change or even just a real horse race.  I’ll let you in on a little secret…media like drama.  Ok..not sure if that’s a secret. They like conflict. And they devour polls that..as we found out…that have no apparent basis in fact.   Lest I forgot about 2008.  Pollsters back then were also calling for a tight race.  But the Liberals were the ones doing the heel nipping.  Deep down I think the bulk of Albertans will never be able to vote in a Liberal government…not until all memories of the NEP are bred away.  My husband tells the story of the last election…as the results came down in 2008.  It was looking like another Tory majority.  He heard a reporter yell out…”FUCK. I can’t believe it!”  Was this reporter a NDP supporter? Did he have ties to the Liberals?  He may have even voted for the the PC’s. Not sure..but odds are they were pissed because they wanted a change.  Another story. Another challenge. Not the same old government. With the same old predictable characters.

Oh well…it is what it is.  Now, election junkies will have to immerse themselves in the run off election in France. Or apparently according to pollsters the Federal Conservatives and the NDP are neck in neck in the latest polls.  With Wilfred Laurier coming up not far behind. Wink.

Yesterday was ‘Change your PIN day’. Police say you should change it every couple of months to prevent criminals from skimming your banking information and stealing your money. You don’t change it because you will forget? Here are some tips.

1. Pick your favorite number and then pair it up with the month. eg. Fav. number 30. Month (march) 03. PIN 3003
2. Use words and then translate them into numbers. ‘Word’ is 9673
3. I like this one the best. Put a fake contact in your phone. Sapin Smith 856-7890. The last four digits can be your pin. Just back up your phone to the computer in case it goes down and keep your battery charged if you want to go to the bank machine.

We also heard from our viewers….

4. Peter Fairhead suggest password keeper in Blackberry.

Elaine Wilson warns…if your pin is longer than 4 numbers you may have problems when travelling. “Many countries will not accept bank card pin numbers greater than 6 digits. It’s a good idea to change it before you go and then again when you get home.”

“Mama..climb up my hair.” Mama…don’t call me Olive. I’m Rapunzel.”  ”When I grow up I want to be a mermaid.”  Just a few of the funny quotes I hear everyday from my little princess who thinks she’s real royalty.  She has to pretend to touch a spinning wheel before she goes to sleep.

How bad is it? We went to the grocery store about 6 months ago.  She grabbed an apple from the pile.  Pretended to take a bite.  Carefully placed her self on the ground in the produce aisle.  Peeking through her half-closed eye lids she murmured….”kiss me prince.  I’m sleeping”.  My kid is dramatic.  I accept that.  Insert joke here. (Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree is an easy one) I have heard the stories about girls who love princesses who grow up to be spoiled, obsessed and materialistic.  I think there is a check and balance in parenting,  so we have indulged her obsession up until now.  I hear they suffer princess overload after a while and it will burn out.

I care about the women my girl looks up to.  Yep…I’m going to be cliche…but I want them to be strong, independent women who’s self worth doesn’t hang on the whim of a man.  I don’t want her to be a princess waiting in a tower for her true love’s kiss.  Gag.  I want her to fashion a rope with leftover dental floss (environmentally friendly and thrifty).  I want her to scale down the tower (athletic). I want her to navigate her way over to the nearest registry,  get a business licence and open up a self help company to aid aspiring princesses kick the damsel-in-distress habit.  OK. That’s over the top.  She is only 3.  But seriously like most moms…I want to make sure she is surrounded by positive role models.  Disney has changed as the times have. But really…bottom line is that the moral of their story is money.  Let’s judge for ourselves.

How does your favorite princess stack up?

Sleeping Beauty: She seems nice. Humble as she is raised as a peasant.  There’s not really an opportunity to save herself.  She is locked in a tower asleep and can only awake when a prince plants one to break the spell.  At least she spent an afternoon with her prince before deciding she loved him. See Snow White.

Role Model rating:  5.

Snow White:  I dislike this Disney standard the most.  She is to women’s lib like Kim Kardashian is to long term relationships.  When Snow White has her first chance encounter with the prince, she giggles and runs away without saying a word.  But yet she loves this complete stranger and she is carted off to his castle in the clouds. At the end, she totally abandons her 7 new friends who risked life and limb to save her from the witch.  Unless there is some back story we are all unaware of…that is weak. Plus that voice is just down right grating.

Role model rating: 0

Belle: I like Belle.  She wants much more than this provincial life.  She wants out of her small french town and rejects the town hunk, Gaston.  She is brave, kind and smart.  She loves her dad and sacrifices herself for him.  Here’s where Belle goes off the rails…she never learns the name of the man she loves.  She just calls him Beast throughout the movie.  That doesn’t seem right.

Role Model rating: 8

Ariel: I’m gonna put it out there. Ariel is a stalker.  She watches Eric from the sea. Collects his stuff.  Talks to his statue. Even when she gets legs, she can’t engage in an actual conversation with him because the witch took her voice. This doesn’t reflect kindly on Prince Eric who must have fallen in love with her looks.

Role model rating: 3

Mulan: Not a princess.  But she’s my favorite.  Like most girls, Mulan struggles with finding her place in the world.  She feels the pressure of being a girl in a stifling male-dominated culture. She wants to please her father so much that she disguises herself as a boy to fight in his place. Mulan is the one saving the men on the battlefield. Go girl!

Role model rating: 9

Cinderella: She is a bit of a door mat, bucking to every whim of her step-mother and step-sisters.  But she really is kind to animals.  Name a princess movie that doesn’t have an animal in it.

Role model rating: 4.5

Tiana: Tiana knows what she wants and she is working hard to get it.  She’s not wishing on a star hoping her own restaurant will fall into her lap.  She falls in love by accident while her prince is an amphibian.  She also proves that not all princesses have to be white and blond.  I wish she was more mass marketed.  Plus the music in the movie based out of New Orleans is quite catchy.

Role model rating: 9

Rapunzel: I like that she has freckles.  Little girls can see themselves in her.  The man Rapunzel loves is flawed.  Sounds realistic because really…aren’t they all?  Her machiavellian mother pulls her strings until she finally gets the courage to strike out on her own…after 18 years.

Role Model rating: 7.5

Pocahontas: It’s tough to judge a character based on a real person. Pocahontas is brave. Beautiful. Respects nature.  The movie doesn’t end with the happy ending like most Disney flicks do.  I admit I am a sucker for a love story and I wanted the two to stay together despite all the inherent challenges.  Gotta respect Disney for mirroring actual history at the end.  Kind of.

Role Model rating: 8

Yes. I have not been kind to these beautiful, fragile, animals-loving females our little girls admire so much.  But like most moms, I want the highest standard of role models for my kid. Saying all this…if princesses are a drug…I am my daughter’s pusher.  I am the one buying the dolls, the games, the dresses.   I like the smile it puts on her face.  I like the imagination I can see blooming when she puts on her Rapunzel dress. No matter the princess of choice…it’s really up to us moms to be the best role model in our children’s lives.  We are the ones they mould themselves on.  Now if only I could grow my hair 70 more feet so she can climb out the third story on it.

We won the prize we sought.  The Shameless Self Promotion prize.  What logos?  ha ha.

Our team. Producer Jenna, Ryan, Bridget and me. Thanks Christmas Bureau for inviting us.

There were other entries.  Really good entries.  Check out the Edmonton Sun’s.

The Edmonton Sun's entry was very creative. Really liked it.

The CBC team…bless their wonderful newsy hearts…cheated like no body’s business. They recruited Brett Roy from Sweet Lollapalooza , a chocolate shop from Commerce place to put them over the edge.  They won most festive.

This team won most festive. But brought in a ringer...a professional chocolate maker.

We all had a lot of fun and left on a sugar high.  But we all left knowing that we, in our little way, helped the Christmas Bureau.  You can help make a difference in some one’s life by donating on line, at local malls, or any fire hall.

Icing in hand. Gingerbread man. Check. We are ready to decorate.

Another year.  Another sticky fingered, icing covered debacle.  We along with other media teams decorated gingerbread houses for the kick off of the Christmas Bureau.  It’s an institution here in Edmonton.  This year they are raising 1.8 million dollars to provide a proper, festive Christmas to those who might do without.  70-thousand this year.

Go Shameless self promotion. Or go home!

Our goal is simple.  Go BT or go home.  So we painstakingly cut out dozens of BT logos and pictures of well…ourselves to use to decorate.  We also went with the breakfast theme.  Coffee for the roof shingles.  Bacon siding.  And chocolate eggs for good measure.  Not a nutritious breakfast but a recipe for success.

I so wanted to go to Fat Burger.  It seems everyone else in the newsroom was heading there.  They have these fries with chili, cheese, sour cream and tomatoes.  My stomach is yelling at me. “Why are you giving up the nacho fries!!!! ” Sorry stomach…we are going to a place less appetizing.  A place  some call The Murder stairs.  Once or twice a week my co-workers and I kill ourselves on those steep 202 steps just down from the Hotel MacDonald.  It’s also the place where someone lost their life.   But that’s just one of many stories told on those stairs.

The city painted over the spot where a young man was killed several years ago.

Michele (our weather specialist), Greg (City TV engineer) and I aren’t always disciplined enough to go.  We get up early.  Most of our energy is spent on 3 and a half hours of live TV…but some days what we have left, we give to the stairs.  What I can tell you, and this is probably something you already know,  is that we have a beautiful river valley.  Our view is more beautiful than any gym. No membership required.  I am no meteorologist, but it also seems to have its own climate.  No matter how windy it is walking down Jasper Avenue…there are no gusts in that pocket of the river valley.

There is also no shortage of life there.  I’ve never seen a deer.  But we have seen people who just woke up in the brush and wandered sleepily onto the stair case.  More than once we interrupted young people sparking a joint. We did the stairs one morning with BC Lions coach Wally Buono.  We just inserted ourselves into the tail end of his workout.  He told us to pump our arms faster to make us forget the pain in our legs.  The man knew what he was talking about.

Michele, Me and Greg

That half an hour is not just about getting some exercise.  And we don’t get a lot.  We usually manage 3 sets.  Our highest was 5.  We did that once.  My trainer looks at me cock-eyed when I rave about my 2 sets of stairs…apparently that’s not enough.  No, it’s about bonding with my co-workers.  It’s about venting about the day. It’s about brain storming.  It’s about enjoying our city for its beauty and its reality.  It’s about cheering on each other.  Pushing each other to get to the top of those stairs. It’s about discussing the pain in our calves the next day.

Michele and I heading on up.

With the weather getting cooler…we may be forced back indoors.  I will miss our adventures on those stairs.  How do you work out in the winter?  Do you suck it up and dress warm?  Do you switch to the gym?  Do you snow shoe?  We are thinking about maybe walking through the pedways to the Shaw Conference centre to tackle the stairs there.  Or I may be forced to find some stairs near Fat Burger.

As a mom, I have two heads.  The stubborn one will never follow the pack.  Won’t play victim to the hype.  I won’t be that lemming jumping off a cliff in a supposedly orchestrated display of nature.

Ha.  Fat chance.  Who am I kidding?  I want my kid to have what everyone else has.  I live to see a smile on her face. I don’t want to disappoint her by not getting what she wants for Christmas…and most likely what she wants for Christmas is what is popular.  She wants what her friends have.

Remember this craze from the 80's?

Remember the craze over Cabbage Patch Kids?  I remember my mom dropping junior-high-me off at Sears in Brantford, Ontario (where we were living at the time) at 6am.  I sat in line with the other ‘lemmings’ waiting for the doors to open.  Come 9:00, we all rushed in…mostly adults and in a frenzy of elbows we grabbed the prize.  An ugly fabric doll with a birth certificate and a genius marketing team.  Parents did the same thing for Tickle-me-Elmo.

Tickle me Elmo

Saying all that…parents want to know what is hot. So do aunties, uncles, grandmas and grandpas.  So here is one of many lists of top toys for 2011. Enjoy and keep your elbows up Moms.

http://besttoysguide.com/

How’s your kid in a candy store?  It’s not exactly a sweet experience for me and my little Olive. My 2 year old not only brakes for chocolate, but she will hold you hostage as she lies limp on the floor of a crowded store until she gets that pink cupcake with sprinkles.

I scream for ice cream, cupcakes, chocolate bars, gum ...should I go on?

She is a chocolate fiend, but so am I. And that’s why I keep dragging her into these stores.  I am not a glutton for punishment. Just a glutton. Here’s a few of our favorite places to get that sugar fix.

Those with refined tastes already know Duchess Bake shop on 124 St. It’s French, expensive and the high end clientele might look at you with furrowed brow if you drag a whiny kid in there, but they have take out boxes.  Is the macaron the new cupcake?  Not sure.  Need to taste more. Yum. The small almond flour meringue cookies (not to be confused with macaroon) aren’t too big for a little tummy.  But the price tag may be too big for a little wallet. They are more than a dollar each.  Their Duke cake with the salted caramel is really good too.

We go to the Strathcona Farmer’s market when we need a special cake or an ‘it’s Saturday and I need sugar rush’ cake. Baked and sold by an older, lanky man and his sweet wife, there are no sprinkles or Dora the Explorer add-ons.  Its just great cake with an ingredient list I can pronounce. My favorite is the carrot and the chocolate is amazing.

My take: Flirt and Crave are the best for Cupcakes

I talk about it on the show all the time.  I love cupcakes.  It’s true.  Olive only likes the pink ones.  But I am a bit pickier.  I’ve hit most of the cupcake places around town.  My 2 favorites are Crave (great icing and I love the minis) and Flirt (my favorite is the Oreo one with a cookie baked in the middle of the cake).  If you like filled ones…Big city cupcakes are pretty good too but the cake is a bit denser.

Carol’s sweets on High street in Glenora is a great place for a sugar-coated time warp.  All the old school candies are there.  For a healthier choice..maybe I should put ‘healthier ‘ in quotation marks…go to Rocky Mountain Chocolate factory. They have those great caramel apples which are then covered in chocolate, gummies, oreos and everything under the sugar-spun sun.  I consider that those part of the food group.  Apples are healthy right? Olive, who is assuming the limp position on the floor is screaming,”yes mama”.

Why do Canadians still pay more for the same thing compared to Americans?

Books are the most obvious items where the discrepency is obvious because the prices are put on the back.  But from clothing to greeting cards, Canadians are paying more than Americans for the same thing.

Why?

Here’s some of the reasons that can contribute to it.

1. Currencies are volatile.  The dollar is high now…but may drop next week.  Businesses can’t drop and raise prices on a whim.

2. Higher tarrifs and taxes in Canada

3. Freight costs to ship things north of the border

4. Companies must bear the costs to produce mandatory bilingual labelling

5. Contracts to purchase goods are made months in advance.

6. And let’s face it…and it may be an ugly reality…the US has more buying power than Canada.  Alberta has 3 million people…the same amount as a New York City suburb.  We are not the most desirable market in North America.

This may not reduce the budgetary sting of this seemingly unfair situation but it may give us some insight on why it’s happening. And of course if you are planning a trip to the U.S. bring Mr. Visa.

It was date night.  Me, my husband and our third wheel…2 year old Olive.  We like taking her out. Most times. The other day, my husband went into an Italian restaurant we always wanted to try.  Nothing fancy, but classier than Pizza Hut. He asked “do you have a high chair.” A server replied “no.” “Then you don’t have my business”, and we walked out.  Olive needs to be restrained while eating.  The terrible twos are not a myth.

Actual sign in a North Carolina restaurant

There’s a restaurant in North Carolina that recently made headlines for posting a sign for parents, “screaming kids will not be tolerated.”  My kid screams.  Not a lot…but she’s broken a few glasses with her upper range. I want to go to a place where I am not on the receiving end of dirty looks.

I put it out on Twiter…where is the best kid-friendly restaurant?  Here are a few Edmonton place  my fellow parents and I recommend for those with hungry kids who aren’t always on their best behaviour.

The seemingly constant line ups at Cora’s (3 locations) aren’t great for kids.  But if you can get in, there’s an extensive kids menu. The children’s meals are big portions, maybe too big. When our food was taking a while, the server brought cheerios and bananas for an antsy Olive.

At Ragazzi (near Bonnie Doon Mall) you and the kids can watch the home-made pizza pie crust being hand tossed.  I have even heard of them letting the kids toss their own dough.

Red Robin (4 locations) was a popular choice among parents.  They like the spill proof cups, fun activities, and healthy, kid-friendly food. There’s even a kids section on their website. Also before you go, you can check allergy alerts and gluten free options on line.

Other restaurants with good kid-ratings include Tropika for its’ kid friendly dishware.   And nothing can beat Montana’s and the tablecloths you can colour on.

If you cater to kids, the parents will come.