BT Edmonton Blogs

The Vancouver Pacific National Exhibition.  Have you been?  Well, they want you to go.  Here in Edmonton, they are advertising the cotton-candied, pop-stained mid-way and noisy rided teenage dream.

One attraction might be worth the 13 hour drive to the west coast.  Deep fried butter.  Uh…yum?  I have a huge sweet tooth and I’ve indulged in deep fried oreos (life changingly good), deep fried coke (actually not bad) and the now common deep fried chocolate bar (had a snickers…chocolate melted…it was ok).  And of course, who hasn’t had the deep fried ice cream at Julio’s Barrio on Whyte ave. But deep fried butter?  Aren’t they called Krispy Kremes?

Deep fried butter w/ sauce Ctsy: Toronto Star

The balls o’butter also made a heart stopping appearance at the CNE earlier this summer. Got the trick to deep frying butter from a Toronto Star article.

“Skinkle mixes it with secret ingredients, scoops it into small portions with a melon baller and freezes it.  When it’s good and cold she dips the butter balls in sweet funnel cake batter and deep fries them for about 20 seconds. The bite-size balls are drizzled with raspberry, chocolate, caramel or vanilla topping and sprinkled with icing sugar. A four-pack, served in a cardboard tray on toothpicks, costs $5″

You gotta check out this kid from the states.  I haven’t tried the DF butter but by his reaction it must be pretty good.  Either that or the hot oil has gone to his head.

If you have a favorite food, chances are someone has battered it and stuck it in a tub of boiling oil. There are deep fried mac and cheese balls. Deep fried pickles.  Deep fried peaches and cream. Deep fried peanut butter and jam sandwiches.

Deep fried coke

What is it about deep frying food that makes it so good?  I don’t know.  Is it our ‘the bigger the better’ culture we live in? Is it the greasy, yummy taste it leaves in our mouth?  Is the Eden-apple syndrome?  We shouldn’t have it and that makes it even more irresistible?

Whatever it is…we pay a deep price for our grease addiction. Deep fried Mars bars are about 500 calories.  Deep fried coke is more than 800.  If you are on a diet, you might want to just stick with a Big Mac with cheese.  It only has 704 calories.

Deep fried Cadbury creme egg

Even David Letterman talked about DFB in his daily top ten list.  In “Things you should ask before you eat deep fried butter”, he asks “how close is the nearest emergency room?”  and “Should I be heart smart…and order the deep fried margarine.”  Laugh Dave…but keep looking for ‘Can’t believe it’s not deep fried!’

I vaguely remember the first day of  kindergarten. It was at Abbott school in the north end.  I remember the colourful room.  I remember all the new toys.  I can’t remember crying or clinging to my mother’s coat as she tried to make her escape into 12 years of freedom.  But I probably did.

Change is hard

On Tuesday, in our news cast, we ran a story about the first day of school for Elk Island school division.  Most kids looked snappy in their new clothes, almost happy to be lugging the still-creased-from-the-store backpack to school.  But as I was reading the words on the teleprompter…there was one little girl who caught the corner of my eye. Watch the video and toward the end…look for the girl in pink.  It looks like she was told Disneyland burned down and she was going to identify the remains of Mickey mouse.  She looked like she was told Santa decided to cease and desist any more visits down her dusty chimney. Her tear soaked face matched her pink sweater.  Her mouth gaped as she openly sobbed.

After 5 years of being home with mom, surrounded by her favorite stuffies,  napping  in the comfort of her own bed…now she was told it’s time for her to move on.  It’s heart breaking, but  just one of many adventures she will face as she grows up.  And we all know she’ll be okay in moments after her mom or dad tears her hand out of theirs.

But will the parents be ok?  The interview with the school principal told the other side of the story.  She said there was a lot of tears…but these salty droplets were rolling down the faces of the parents.  I know that will be me.  I cry at the new Apple iPhone commercial with the new grandpa.

My own little girl is facing a new adventure in her life.  She is going to daycare on September first for the first time.   I am nervous.  The butterflies are thrashing around in a mosh pit in my stomach.  I know, like all those parents dropping their kids off at school for the first time that it’s another adventure for her.  She loves being around other kids and I know her speech will improve and she will thrive in the supportive environment.  But as a mom, I want to shelter her from the kids who will run her over with their tricycle or push her out of the way to get at the sandbox.  But, growth comes with letting go.  I am just glad my husband will have the adventure of dropping her off .  He can grow.

Despite the fact I have a blog, I can’t say I’m a blogger.   I have a blackberry.  I use it for texts, emails and phone calls.  That’s it.  Oh, and the occasional game of crib.  I have an ipod shuffle that someone had to load for me. A techie I am not…much closer to a luddite.

To be honest, I’m not sure if anyone cares what I have to say or if anyone is reading my blog..it’s only 3 weeks old.   I know I have the freedom to write what I want…so long as it’s not spewing hate or inciting violence.  As I muddle my way through the blogosphere, I find this article fascinating.  The Oilers and other NHL teams do not accredit bloggers and they want the teams that do…to stop. Read this…it’s a great talker.

http://yhoo.it/9QTHSz 13

What is a blogger?  Someone who has a website and rambles personal thoughts? Are they a journalist?   Is everyone with a ‘blog’ allowed a free pass to an Oilers season?  Are there more qualified bloggers than others? I’m not sure if every Tom, Dick and Harry with a blog should be allowed in the locker room, having access to the players.  I think the team and its officials should be held accountable for their actions but I think there are already a lot of qualified people there to do it.  Most bloggers comment on what they read in the media anyway.

The Oilers probably want more control on the people who comment on their performance.  The bloggers are not accountable to anyone, but their readers. Team management doesn’t have a general manager or publisher to call if they don’t like what they hear or read.

Not everyone who applies for accreditation to Oilers games gets it.  Should the big bloggers like David Staples be allowed and the smaller ones forbidden?  My colleague Ryan brings up a point. He says if someone tapes a news event on their handicam…is that video of less value, less legitimate than video taken by a traditional news organization?

From sports to theatre…these bloggers know how to make waves. That brings me to the big blogger vs actor blowout of last week.  A local blogger posted theatre reviews on her site. An actor got upset  about what he read and posted an ugly response, saying (among other things) the blogger is not trained to write reviews and shouldn’t.  That response was then blogged and tweeted and facebooked. The actor got death threats.

A blogger should have the freedom to write about sports teams and the things they see on stage.   The blogger, in question, didn’t get free tickets to get into the shows (she bought season tickets). And honestly I can most times relate more to a layperson’s review than a trained professional who can talk above my head.

Blogs are relatively new…I guess when you compare them to traditional newspapers, TV and radio. By my mumbled thoughts, you can see I’m struggling with this.  I have a few blogs i follow.  My favorite is Perez Hilton. Redneckmommy makes me laugh, gasp with shock and often cry.  David Staples has a good sports blog.  As with everything, we will struggle with this new form of technology until it becomes even more mainstream…a day that the Oilers and a certain actor are not looking forward to.

Everyone is talking about the bison roaming the streets of Camrose.  They must have needed to work on their short game, as they took over the local golf course. Golfers were shocked (who wouldn’t be?) and one took video.  There was fear slash laughter in his voice. 

 But these bison are not small.  They weigh about 2000 pounds.  They have the ability to run 48 kilometers an hour.  That’s not funny. 

Bison are the most dangerous in rutting or mating season

According to the book Nature on the Rampage, bison are like freight trains with hooves.  “Its battering-ram skull is topped with horns specially designed to hook and gore its foes”.  Park wardens say bison are at their most dangerous during rutting season (which runs through September…which is now).

Here’s some tips if you encounter a bison on the street (that sounds funny to say, and it’s even odder to think we might actually need them)

-If you see a bison with its head lowered, snorting and pawing the ground…start running.

-Running is a good idea, but they can outrun you so get a head start.  Bison run three times faster than a human.

-If you can’t run…lie down. Bison have a hard time getting its head and horns down to gore you.

Having a bison walk down main street past city hall is way different than the docile animals you see on the side of the Yellowhead in Elk Island Park.  Let’s just hope you don’t have to look one of these beasts in the eye and wonder if you should drop or run.

It is definitely cool to have a dinosaur named after your city.  There’s no Hong Kongasaur, or Chicagosaurus.  It makes you wonder what you might find in your back yard if you dug deep enough.

How do you wake up your kid for school?

School time is just around the corner.  While my girl is too young to go to school, she will be going to daycare for the first time in September.  The rare time we needed to wake her up…we just opened the door.  She heard the morning commotion, the sound of our voices and she woke up. That is not going to last forever.  I know there will be a time that she pretends she doesn’t hear me when I plead for her to get out of bed.   

Here’s some suggestions I hope to try out when I need to pull them out of my arsenal.

- Be funny. Do a Friday morning dance.  Make faces.

- Be sweet. Showering your kids with kisses may work up until they turn into a teenager.

- Be annoying.  Tickling may tick them off.  But they won’t hate you for it.

Here’s what some of my twitter friends said

@Lynnoil says singing 80’s songs always works.

@hurtinalbertan says have an understanding with your kids.  If they miss the bus and need a ride to school..the gas money comes out of their allowance.

@mommagrocks says she yells “wakey wakey rise and shaky” and then gives them a good toss.

@debraward does what alot of people do…a spray of water works everytime.

@dheuman says he starts with gentle talk.  When that doesn’t work then drums, pots and pans, then cymbals and last resort cold water.

@donnalives says she wakes her child up asks them when they will be ready to get up.  She sets a timer and waits for the beep, 3 to 5 minutes later.

@difabs says his mom always tore the blankets off him.

And lastly, if you want to get aggressive with a sleepy teen…lift the mattress up…just high enough to get them to roll out.

Let me know what you do to make kids rise and shine.

 I feel like I’m in a dream sequence…you know like in movies.  Things are hazy, kind of out of focus…but I usually don’t smell like campfire in these scenes in my head.

 Edmonton is enveloped in smoke.  The perfect storm of weather systems trapped the B.C. haze here in Alberta.  It’s worse in Red Deer and Calgary where air quality is very poor.  As I’m writing this, Edmonton is listed as fair.

Some people are finding it harder to breathe, others are losing their voices.  Here at City TV, we turned off the air conditioning to keep the smoke out of the fresh air intakes.

 Alberta Health Services warn people with respiratory conditions to stay indoors.  I have found that’s easy to do.  I drive from my attached garage to the underground CityTV lot…I could go days without going outside and smelling like roasted marshmallow.  That indoor isolation may be great in this circumstance, but obviously not in others.  People living suburban lives, like me, often miss out on the new birds who move into their yard, and greeting neighbours with a smile and a wave everyday.  But that’s a different blog.

Will using a mask help in the smoke?

I’ve seen a few people continuing their exercise routine despite the fog. Some are wearing masks. Do they help?  Well I did some research.  The Alaska Public Health Department says most don’t. “It must be able to filter very small particles (around 0.3 to 0.1 microns), and it must fit, providing an airtight seal around the wearer’s face.   Paper “comfort” or “dust” masks commonly found at hardware stores are designed to trap large particles, such as sawdust. These masks will not protect your lungs from smoke. “  Wet towels and bandannas also don’t work well. Respirator masks can filter some particulate, but they have issues as well.  For more information, here’s the website.  Hopefully the smoke settles before we need to go out and buy one.

http://www.epi.hss.state.ak.us/eh/wildfire/FAQ_FireSmoke.pdf

I hope this blog isn’t turning into a shopping blog, but I guess if shopping becomes news then it’s fair game.

Have you heard of Groupon?  I hadn’t until last week when one of our reporters told me about it.  It’s a website that provides discounts at local businesses.  It launched last week with a deal at the downtown restaurant Sabor Divino.  You spend 20 dollars and you get a 50 dollar gift certificate.  It’s a different deal everyday.  There’s been deals on haircuts, climbing companies and at Greenwood’s books.  Each morning, you get an email detailing the deal.

How does it work?  Here’s how it works according to Groupon’s website, “by promising businesses a minimum number of customers, we get discounts you won’t find anywhere else. We call it “collective buying power!”  But, there’s a catch.  If not enough people sign on to buy the deal, the deal is cancelled.

Thursday's Deal at Groupon

On Thursday, Groupon’s website was overwhelmed with Edmontians trying to get the latest deal.  Spend 25 dollars and get a 50 dollar credit at the GAP.   Thousands bought, so many did in fact that the website is overwhelmed.  The site admitted so many people wanted to cash in on the deal that there were delays in processing requests.  Keep trying and eventually you will get through.

As long as I’m talking about shopping…parents, have you heard about these new boots called Bogs? I hadn’t, but apparently there are huge waiting lists for them.

Bogs are in high demand in Edmonton

They are definitely different looking.  The bottom is rubber and the top looks like neoprene.  They look like fancy rubber boots but they are rated to -30 degrees.  They actually can be used as rubber  boots so buy big for your kids if you want them to last into the spring and summer.

According to Cynthia at Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes (a kid’s store in Glenora) there were so many pages of people on a waiting list, she had to hire someone to alert people that a shipment was coming in.  At the store yesterday it was a bit chaotic as mothers were picking over the boots and kids were tearing apart the store.  Bogs are expensive so be prepared to pay $100 dollars for kids sizes. They also are available for women. You can get more information on how to get them at the company’s website.

11 month old baby with bong posted on Facebook

This is even more disturbing that the smoking baby in Indonesia.  Recently, a Florida mom posted a picture of her 11 month old baby boy appearing to smoke out of a bong.   

Nineteen year old Rachel Stieringer was arrested on charges of possession of drug paraphernalia.  She told investigators she was cleaning her room one day and her young son crawled in and put the pipe up to his mouth, according to court documents. Stieringer said she thought it was funny and snapped a picture. The Department of Children and Families is still investigating.

Smoking Toddler

Speaking of the smoking toddler… months after he made international news Aldi Suganda is still smoking.  The 2 year old started smoking when he was 11 months old during daily trips to the market with his parents.  His parents, Rizal and Diana would let him play by himself and they say he went off and discovered smoking.  He is now smoking 2 packs a day.  His parents claim they are trying to make him quit.  But so far, it’s not working.  Actually acting his age…he’s throwing tantrums when they take the cigarettes away.

The story of a 3 year old boy falling from the second storey of West Edmonton Mall puts fear in every parent with a toddler who doesn’t know the definition of danger.

As a mom of a one and a half year old, I certainly am not a perfect parent.  Olive gets into trouble all the time and thankfully I have always been there to bail her out.  A few times, I didn’t know what she is capable of until she did it.  Recently, she grabbed a knife off the counter.  I didn’t know she was tall enough to reach and I had never seen her do that before.  Luckily the knife wasn’t sharp and I was there to pull it out of her hand.  But, things could have turned out differently.  I know that.

I have heard some Twitter comments and even some remarks by kid-less people in our own studio wondering why the parents didn’t prevent this.  Parents aren’t robots.  They are human and we all make mistakes.

I am forever haunted by the story of a mom in the Toronto Airport.  She was holding her 15 month old son in her arms…she took her attention away for just a moment when little Lucca went over the ledge, plunged 2 storeys and died.  She is not a bad mother.  But a mother who will punish herself for the rest of her life.

Lucca Romano died after falling 2 stories at the Toronto Airport

Since hearing that story, I keep Olive far away from railings even if I have her in my arms.  I predict a lot of parents, after hearing this WEM story will do the same.

It’s great that the West Edmonton Mall story turned out well.  The boy didn’t suffer major injuries, but it must have been terrifying for his parents and for anyone watching.  Witnesses talk about the scream.  I can’t imagine what that would have sounded like.  Lately there have been a number of kids who have fallen and it was caught on tape.  All the events turned out well, but man the video is frightening.  Take a look.

1. A four year old is fooling around on the outside of an escalator.  Things get out of hand and he falls into the arms of someone who was watching.

2. This one is disturbing. Another Turkish boy falls onto a pile of pipes.  The 3 year old fell 35 feet.  He survived.  His fall cushioned by the pipes.

I heard it was a busy weekend at Victoria’s Secret at West Edmonton Mall.  There were huge line ups just to get into the store.  On Friday there was at least a half an hour wait.  Savvy shoppers say at least a half an hour in line up for a cashier and big cues for a dressing room. 

A lot of the sizes are sold out…the most common ones anyway.  32 C and DD’s are hard to find. However, size 36 AA should be around.  Rumours have it that they get new stock on Wednesday.

Not sure how long they will be doing this…but buyers were given bright pink treat tote bags. They were filled with perfume, lotion, lip gloss and black thong  for those who buy at least 75 dollars in Victoria’s Secret.

Victoria's Secret

My shopping sources add…La Senza and La Vie en Rose  were dead.  I’m sure the hype and novelty will wear off at some point.

Let me know on twitter how the lines are during the week. @staceybrotzel

Forget bras…Calamine lotion is in high demand this summer.  Mosquitoes are bad.  Last month, city pest crews found 18-hundred bugs in their traps, now there are about 300.  That is apparently normal.

Mosquito trap

To try to keep the population under control, they are spraying ravines, industrial areas and farmland.

I learned a lot about mosquitoes this year.  I discovered there are two types of mosquitoes…the ’spring’ mosquitoes are blood thirsty.  The ’summer’ mosquitoes are less aggressive but no less hungry.  It was a buggy ‘perfect storm’. Both types were out earlier this month, the rainy weather unleashed the latecomers who were waiting for the right conditions just as the summer bugs were hatching.  Now, the spring ones are dying off and the numbers are back to normal.  I can go outside again.