Oh, yeah....and

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!

Love you!

Just kidding!!!

This morning, I opened my daily online news to get my fix, as I do every morning, and this is what I found:

By The Canadian Press

TORONTO - The Canadian dollar is continuing its trek skywards in overseas trading.
The loonie is trading overseas at 83.86, up more than two full U.S. cents from Wednesday's close. On Wednesday, the dollar had one of its biggest single-day jumps in history as the value of the U.S. greenback eroded against other major currencies including the euro and British pound.
Traders also point to higher prices for oil because Canada is an oil exporting country and the loonie is a resource-based currency. It ended Wednesday's session ahead 3.67 cents to 81.63 cents U.S. Wednesday's increase was the biggest intraday daily gain ever for the loonie, beating a record set in the early 1970's, according to Bank of Canada data.

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This economy is whacked. Go Loonie, go!!!

Speaking of scary.....

Have you seen what the exchange rate is between Canada and the U.S. these days? For most, this probably doesn't matter, it just means that Americans can get more for their money when they come to the "Great White North" and that Canadians are less likely to drive across the border to Buffalo for shopping trips, as was the case about a year ago at this time when the Loonie was actually worth more than a dollar. This month, the Loonie has plunged more than it has in a single month since 1950, and it is at its lowest overall rate against the U.S. dollar since 2004. The official close at the bank today was 1 U.S. dollar = 77.59 Canadian cents. They're saying that it could get as low as 70 cents to the dollar before this is all said and done. It does mean that there will probably be some good sales up here around Christmastime, but still.....that really sucks for us Americans being paid in Canadian dollars, eh?

Which is scarier?

This picture of Madame Tussaud's likenesses of the candidates for President of the United States,

or what is going to happen when the election ensues in 8 short days? I'm not sure, that's a tricky one.

We now interrupt your regularly scheduled Fall.....

After a beautiful fall weekend, yesterday I had somewhat of a rude awakening to a very windy and blustery day. By the end of the evening, this is what we saw.......SNOW---sticking on the ground, on October 21st!! I've seen it all now......let's just hope that it warms back up and we can get back to my favorite season!

Fall is here!!

My favorite time of the year.

Why? Well, let's see......

FOOTBALL

HATS TO KEEP MY HEAD WARM....(and my hubby looks good in fleece)

and last, but not least......

BEAUTIFUL LEAVES!!

Hopefully I'll have some more pictures to post from this fall soon---we're heading to the Pinecrest Club this weekend to take in some foliage and some wild game.

Zooboomafoo

After my last post, I read over this thing and realized how much I suck at posting regularly and following up on stuff that I mention once and then never re-visit. Sorry. I'll try and get better. Wait, does it really matter? Does anyone read this anyway?? Oh well......

I mentioned in the blog a month or so back that Gary and I visited the Toronto Zoo. We took one rare Saturday morning that we stayed in the GTA to drive down to Scarborough to check it out. The line to get in was pretty long, even though it was pretty overcast and cloudy for most of the day. The admission fee for adults is 20 bucks, and when I saw that, I couldn't believe how expensive that was. But once we were in the zoo and saw its huge size and all of the animals and all of the improvements they were making to the facility (including a new polar bear habitat!) I guess that justified the cost quite a bit for me. And you know what? We were there for five hours, so I guess it was 40 bucks well-spent. It's a beautiful zoo, the animals were really active, and I could have stayed there even longer just watching them. I love the zoo. If anyone ever wants to come up and go with us, I'm game! It's open year-round, too! I had TONS of fun taking pictures, I took probably 400 overall, and even though the weather didn't give me ideal lighting, I think I got some really great shots. (Photoshop is a big help, too, don't get me wrong.) Here are some of the highlights.

I've decided that when Gary and I win the lottery, I'm going to get a big expensive camera and hang out at zoos and parks all the time to take pictures. I love doing it.

Cultural Phenomenon Number Three

For the past month or month and a half, I have been caught up in the latest book craze to hit the tweens, teens, and adults who love a good, quick and highly addictive read. What I'm referring to is the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer. She's a young, unknown writer who graduated from BYU and dreamed up this wonderful story that is as normal as a story could be when it involves vampires and werewolves. What amazes me is that she never even visited the place where the story is set until after she finished the first book. Her descriptions are spot-on based on everything I've read about the area in Washington that she wrote about, and I even have a friend who has been there, and she agrees. Anyway, I consider this a cultural phenomenon because I find it absolutely fascinating how quickly the entire United States and Canada has made this series a household name. It's almost like Harry Potter, but I think people in the U.S. are embracing it because this time the stories are written by an American, and also because it's just different enough from the Harry Potter books that it really draws people in....at least it did me! I, much like I did with the Harry Potter books, resisted at first, because after all, who would find a series of books about vampires even mildly interesting? Well, after enough times of going into my local Chapters bookstore and seeing the Twilight display getting much larger each time, as well as seeing the initial movie trailers, I decided I would just give in and jump right on the bandwagon. After just a few short pages, I did not regret my decision. I hate to keep comparing the books to HP, but Stephenie Meyer draws the reader into her domain so quickly and it's almost like you're standing right there as the story plays out. There were so many nights that I really REALLY did not want to put the book down to go to sleep. I read all four books so furiously that now that I'm finished, it feels like something is missing and I can't wait for another one to be released! Problem is, the fifth book WAS in progress, and then somehow a draft of it got leaked on to the internet. The author took major offense to that, and now she has put the release of the book on hold indefinitely! I am so bummed. I know I sound like I'm ten years old with the way I'm talking about these books, but seriously, try them on for size for yourself. You'll love them. And the movie is coming out next month......that is a major bonus. I hope they stick true to the story and don't leave out too much, that would be a MAJOR disappointment.

The hypothetical question that's raised from of all this: What makes something a cultural phenomenon/fad/trend? Who decides what succeeds and what fails? Is it strictly based on the general public, or is a lot of it from the marketing that goes along with the product? I just find things like this fascinating....they may be pointless in the grand scheme of things, but fascinating nonetheless.

A link that I found interesting that relates to this story talks about all of the tourism that these books have generated for the small little town in which they are set (Forks, Washington). This author has done the economy of this town a major favor!!

http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/283197/136/