A Sensible Coat

We've had a pretty nice winter in Saskatchewan this year - only a few short spells where the weather dipped less than -20, which is insane, being used to what seems like months of sub -30.  We still had a few days of -50 windchill though, and super cold weather always brings about a major frustration for me:  people who don't wear sensible jackets.

I don't understand these people.  I get the people who wear t-shirts and shorts when it's -30 out - they're just in it for the attention (which is super dumb).  But the people who wear windbreakers in -40, or lightly lined denim jackets in -25 - COME ON.  If you have 10 dollars, you can go to any mall in Saskatchewan and find a reasonably warm jacket on sale that is more suited to extremely cold weather.

Am I a weirdo if I want to ask people what they're thinking when they don't wear sensible jackets?  Am I a weirdo that this bothers me so much?  Many of the people I work with don't wear sensible jackets, and we work up north where it's even colder than Saskatoon most of the time.  And the people I work with all make comfortable salaries and are not allowed to say they can't afford a sensible coat.

One example that sticks out in my mind is a guy I went to school with a few years ago.  I guess his deal was that he would store his winter clothes at his parents' house in a different city during the summer, and this particular year he had forgot his winter coat at his parents' house when he went home for Thanksgiving, so was planning to wait until he went home for Christmas to pick it up.

The problem was, it was an extremely cold fall (hovering around -30 on average) and not only did this guy not have his warm winter coat, he had NO coat in Saskatoon.  Every morning he walked from his apartment to the university (about 2 km - not exaggerating) in what he insisted was the warmest "sweater" he owned - essentially, a long-sleeved t-shirt with a hood on it.  I guess to him the hood meant that it was a jacket, but it was seriously a t-shirt with a hood, made out of light cotton.  Also he did not have mitts, so he put his hands in the pockets of his t-shirt with a hood.  I think he did eventually find a toque somewhere.

To this day I don't know why it bothered me so much - perhaps I was annoyed at him for other reasons as well - but every day, I'd bundle up in ski pants and long johns to walk less than a km to school, and he'd walk over in a t-shirt with a hood and say "It wasn't that cold" but his face stayed bright red long after it should have after being flushed with the cold.  A friend and I kept offering him alternatives to frostbite - down filled jackets are on sale at the mall for 15 bucks, get your parents to ship your coat on the bus, but he wouldn't let up, insisting that -40 wasn't too bad still but he did pull out his toque that day.

Maybe I'm the crazy one, for caring so passionately about people not wearing sensible coats in cold weather when it's clearly none of my business, but for whatever reason it always frustrates me.  Who are you impressing by not wearing a sensible coat?  No one.  Who is freezing because of it?  You. You live in Saskatchewan - you owe it to yourself to own a sensible coat.

What the frack

No time for a good blog today because I'm in Montreal BUT did you ever hear about the time where Brahm and I met some of the STARS OF BATTLESTAR GALACTICA!!!

No big deal.

Etsy I love you

I just want to profess my massive love for Etsy.  If you don't know what Etsy is, it's basically a giant online craft fair/farmers' market.  And it's AWESOME. 

I discovered Etsy's seed section a while ago and it was basically the best day of my life.  I also got super excited about ordering a terrarium or some air plants but then realized that all the sellers of these items are American and can't ship living things to Canada - sad.

My engagement ring came from Etsy (check out the seller's shop, she's awesome!).  I was SO happy to discover Etsy shortly before we started ring shopping because the ring I got was basically my dream ring, and nothing I've seen on any other website or jewelery catalogue even comes close to it.  And according to Brahm, the seller was amazing to work with, suggested purchasing a moissanite stone (which we are both still super happy about), and worked with him to make sure the ring was delivered before our Iceland trip.  I've found the same with all the Etsy sellers I've worked with too - always fast, friendly, and helpful communication!

We're probably going to be ordering our wedding favours through Etsy as well, which is super awesome because we can still completely customize them but just pay someone a small amount to make them and do the assembly.  While I am into the idea of having customized favours I'm not into the idea of assembling 100+ little packets of stuff (too boring), so thank you Etsy.

Etsy is my go-to site now if I'm looking for a unique gift for someone (or myself, haha).  I love supporting handmade, and Etsy makes it so easy!

These are awesome

I know these have been on the internet for a while but if you haven't seen them, enjoy.  If you have, be reminded of how awesome they are.

SPEAK ENGLISH

I recently re-watched the Simpsons episode "Much Apu About Nothing" (the episode where it turns out Apu is an illegal immigrant) and kind of can't get over how brilliant of a social commentary there was in that episode.  How quickly the vast majority of North Americans forget that our ancestors were the immigrants we now complain about.

The end of that episode made me remember a joke I heard as a kid that has stuck with me:  A Native American got onto a tour bus in Washington DC.  "Hey, how do you like our city?" asked the tour guide.  "How do you like our country?" replied the Native American.

Saskatoon itself has seen massive multicultural growth over the past few years.  I think it's super cool, and I'm excited that my future children will be exposed to people from so many different backgrounds as they grow up, because my friends have always been white, white, and more white.  It's unfortunate that the education system was not prepared to deal with the huge influx of kids into the system who can't speak English though, and especially unfortunate that the government doesn't seem to recognize this problem and instead is cutting back on education funding that could help these kids.

There's my long intro to explain that I'm not the kind of redneck who goes around saying stuff like "You want to live in OUR country, SPEAK ENGLISH" because I understand the issues surrounding immigration and language and reasons for moving your family across the world are often more complicated than we think, not to mention that there are a ton of languages that existed, and STILL exist, in Canada before English.  So I don't go around saying things like that, and I get offended when people do.

But there's one thing that people say, and when they say it my inner redneck wants to scream "SPEAK ENGLISH!"  That thing is "haricots verts."

If you understand a little bit of French, you'll be able to translate right away that haricots verts are green beans.  Yet in the culinary world, they are never called green beans.  They are always called haricots verts. 

How many recipes have I seen that call for haricots verts?  Too many.  I do realize that perhaps the term haricots verts is meant to distinguish fresh green beans from the chopped and frozen variety, but can you please just SPEAK ENGLISH and call them fresh green beans?  How many poor suckers have gone to the store because they're trying to cook a fancy dinner and asked the pimply teens where the "haricots verts" are?

Trying to class up a simple vegetable (okay legume - you know what I mean) by calling it by its French name is straight-up pretentious.  Unless the food doesn't HAVE an English name, like baguette or croissant or even creme fraiche, if the rest of your sentence or recipe is spoken or written in English, use the freaking English name for the ingredient.  You're not fooling anyone with your fancy "haricots verts."  We all know they're still just green beans.

The Weirdest Stagette

(Note:  Brahm doesn't believe me that this story is true.  However, it is totally true.  My friend Jess was there with us and she verified that the story is indeed the truth, including the part with the kids being present.  I don't know why Brahm would think I made this up.  I literally never exaggerate.  Joel, I think you might have been there too but maybe only Jess and I paid much attention because we were somewhat embarrassed for our gender.)

I'm not really a stagette girl.  Many of the stagettes I've witnessed when out on the town (although I'm not out on the town much, I'm an introvert and sort of hate going out on the town) have made me uncomfortable to be in the same building with the party, let alone be involved in one.  My own stagette is going to be pretty unconventional I think - no articles of clothing or accessories identifying me as a bride, nothing shaped like penises, no matching costumes, etc.

But anyway, my point is I guess for a girl's stagette, you throw a party that she would think is awesome.  So for me, awesome means not having to go up to random men and try to sell them penis-shaped candies and get them to lick my face, and not having to wear granny panties over my clothes that my friends Sharpied "Bride" onto.  But for some girls, maybe that would be the most fun night of their life so that's cool I guess, I just hope I don't have to stay very long.

So you can do whatever floats your boat, but one time I witnessed a stagette that was so completely bizarre that I can't quite understand how it floated anyone's boat because it was just so strangely organized and inappropriate.

The stagette in question happened a few years ago, when I was still in university and working a summer job.  Every so often I would go out with my co-workers on Fridays following work, and we'd usually go to Somewhere Else Pub & Grill.

I haven't been to this establishment in a few years, but in those days (and probably still) it was a cool, relaxed pub with decent food and not so loud that you couldn't have a conversation - kind of the perfect place to go for after work drinks and food.  I'm not sure the logistics of this exactly but there was (possibly still is) a section of the restaurant where kids were allowed as well, at least until a certain time in the evening.  So around supper time, Somewhere Else Pub & Grill was also a family restaurant.

One particular evening around 6 pm while a few co-workers and I enjoyed steak sandwiches at Somewhere Else Pub & Grill, a stagette stumbled in.

Um.... hey stagette, guess what, it is 6 pm???

I understand that stagettes can start whenever you want them to, and lots of stagettes start around 6 pm or so with the group going out for a nice supper before the real party begins.  However, this was not the case.  These girls were at family restaurant Somewhere Else Pub & Grill to GET DRUNK, POSSIBLY CRUNK.  At 6 pm.  While children coloured on their menus with crayons the next table over.

They were all wearing these giant white t-shirts with the bride's name Sharpied on the front, and were acting like Somewhere Else Pub & Grill family restaurant was a stop on their crazy train pub crawl, having already consumed copious amounts of alcohol... somewhere else.  While the rest of the pub patrons ate their steak sandwiches, drank their beer, and coloured on their menus, the stagette girls WOOOOOOOOOOOOOed loudly, cheered, did shots, and, in one very uncomfortable moment that I have mostly blocked from my memory, did some sort of bizarre whipped cream body shot thing with a waiter.

And like I said, if this is your idea of a fun stagette (at the proper establishment), power to you - but I don't think this is anyone's idea of appropriate behavior for a family restaurant at 6 pm.  I know to some people the point of a stagette is to draw a ton of attention to yourselves.  I guess trying to get a wild party started in a quiet pub where everyone is super annoyed at you is a surefire way to do that.

Transformers: Movie Club Discussion Points

Although I am not a teacher myself, I associate with a lot of teachers.  One teacher in particular teaches some kids who are really interested in Transformers.  She was asking me if I knew anything about them one day and I said "Well I think one is named Optimus Prime, that is all I know" but then I remembered that for some reason, my household owns the Transformers movie (the Michael Bay version) so I suggested we watch it so she could do some research for school.

So last night, we settled in to watch Transformers.  I am not sure what we were exactly expecting, but I don't think we were expecting to end the movie more confused than when we started.  I think if you have a movie club, or would like to start a movie club, and are looking for a movie with a lot of discussion points Transformers would be a good pick.  I'll start you off with some questions:

• Does this movie have a plot?
• Why do you think Michael Bay chose a runtime of 143 minutes, but also chose to pack 95% of the plot (if you decide there was a plot) into the last half hour?
• Discuss the obstacles Rachael Taylor's character ("the blonde girl") must have had to overcome prior to the movie - i.e. what would a 23 year old Australian woman have to do to be granted such high US government security clearance so early in her career as an analyst?
• Did this movie have a script? 
• My opinion here:  it seemed like this movie did not have a script.  It reminded me a lot of high school drama class where we had to write plays, but a group of slacker boys just "sort of knew the plot" of their play but did not write a script, and it ended up being them bantering slightly too long while trying to advance their plot.  It was scarily a lot like this movie.  They got a bad mark because they did not hand in a script.
• What happened at the end of the movie?  (Seriously - what happened???)
• We honestly watched the ending twice, then Wikipedia-ed the plot, and still could not figure out what happened.  How did Shia LeBleaughsfss defeat Megatron?  Was the power within him all along?  Was the cube destroyed?
• How did Bumblebee get his voice back at the end of the movie?  (Seriously - this was not explained.)
• Who was the Autobot that Optimus Prime was referring to at the end when he said "We lost one"?  (Seriously - WTF happened.)
• Is this movie sexist?  Why do you think the only woman who worked for the entire US government (except the flight attendants) was a 23 year old Australian analyst?
• Do you think Michael Bay knows that women can be in the military?
• Did you understand the movie in any way whatsoever?
• Why do you think the best hacker in the world wasn't already employed by the US government, and instead was living with his grandmother and playing Dance Dance Revolution with his cousin?  Also, why was this character so mean to his grandmother?  (e.g."SHUT UP GRANDMA!")  She seemed nice enough.
• Was Megan Fox's character ("the dark haired girl") a static or dynamic character?  If she was dynamic, how did her character grow over the course of the movie?  What did she learn?  
• What was the purpose of Shia LeBleaghfs best friend at the beginning of the movie?  Do you think Michael Bay promised him a speaking role in the movie and then added him in at the last second when he showed up on set and Michael Bay was like "oh YEAH I forgot about you uhh go climb that tree I guess"?
• Who was your favourite character and how were they different from the other characters?
• Did the female characters add substance to the story in any way?  Do you think Michael Bay had to fill a quota and have at least two "strong female characters"?
• Do you think that $4000 was a reasonable price to pay for an old beater Camaro that spewed exhaust fumes all over the place and the cops would probably ticket you for driving?  Is that how much junker cars cost in the States???

Well, I think those are enough questions for now.  Feel free to add your own questions in the Comments section. 

Excellent Parking Lot Design

Over our 5.5 year relationship Brahm and I have spent many hours discussing one of Saskatoon's major design problems:  anywhere a Tim Horton's pops up = TERRIBLE parking lot design.  I'm not sure if this is the same in other cities, but Saskatoon is notorious for designing the parking lots around Tim Horton's to be ridiculously difficult to navigate.

One especially bad one is the Tim Horton's on Cumberland and 8th Street.  If you're not from Saskatoon, here's the Google Maps depiction of its location:

The street I drew a "C" on is Cumberland Avenue, which cuts across 8th Street, one of Saskatoon's busiest business districts.  I drew the arrow to show how the majority of the traffic (including me) gets into the parking lot, which Tim Horton's shares with Montana's, Sobey's, a gas station, and a strip mall of about 10-ish businesses.  You can also get into the parking lot if you turn onto 8th Street - there is an entrance across the street from where the Boston Pizza is - but the 8th and Cumberland intersection is not fun or easy to make left turns on, so usually I go straight across and turn into the parking lot by Tim Horton's when I'm going to Sobey's.

The stupid thing about this entrance into the parking lot is that Tim Horton's is the first business you encounter, and its drive-thru traffic often spills out onto Cumberland.  It's the busiest Tim's in the entire city apparently, but it was not built to accommodate a high volume of drive-thru traffic.

So here's what often happens (sorry - this is flipped 180 degrees from the Google Map so take a minute to re-orient):

So let's say I am car "D", and I'm trying to make a left turn off Cumberland into the parking lot, so I can get to Sobey's to buy some groceries (or go to Montana's for ribs - NOT!  Sick/disgusting).  Those yellow dots on the cars represent their signal lights.

I'm trying to turn into the non-drive-thru lane of traffic.  However, the drive-thru traffic is spilling out onto the street, and the drive-thru is moving slow.  Car B and C are in a fight over who gets to enter the drive-thru lane first, and I can't turn into the parking lot until car B turns in, but he won't turn until he gets a spot in the drive-thru lane.  Meanwhile, Car A is holding up traffic trying to exit the parking lot because he wants to get into the drive-thru lane as well, but he won't be able to until the traffic slows down and he doesn't have to drive out into the street and turn around to get to the end of the line.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!  It's only like -15 outside.  There are a ton of empty spots in the parking lot RIGHT in front of the Tim's entrance - you will literally get colder having your window open to order, pay, and retrieve your cold coffee slurpees than you will walking from your giant truck (that you will leave idling) into the store.  It will also take way less time to do this than it will to wait around in the drive-thru lineup.  Also, Tim Horton's is super gross.  There is better and cheaper coffee a block away at McDonald's which has a much better designed drive-thru and parking lot.

Welcome to Saskatoon - where everyone loves sitting in their idling vehicles waiting for disgusting coffee while holding up traffic.

Are you a feminist?

There’s a topic I am very passionate about and have wanted to write about for a long time, but wasn’t sure how exactly to jump in.  So, consider this the introductory post for one of my favourite things to talk about:  feminism.  Let’s get into it. 

Think about this question and answer right away:  are you a feminist?  If you answered no, was your reason something like “I’m not a man hater” or “I’m a dude!  Guys can’t be feminists” or “Women can vote, drive, and work outside the home – feminism is a done deal and no further discussion is required”?

Here’s the definition of feminism:  “The advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.”  So news flash:  feminism is about women’s rights.  Not bra-burning, not man-hating, not anti-marriage or anti-family or the thinking that women or superior to men.  Women should be paid the same for the same work, be able to vote and run for political office without having to face sexual discrimination, and be taken just as seriously as men on a social level.

Pretty simple, right?  So let me ask you again:  are you a feminist?  Was your answer something like “well I guess I am, because of course I think women should be equal, but women ARE equal so we still don’t need to be talking about this and being a feminist in this age of equality is pointless”?  Here’s where I disagree with you.  Let’s break it down by the definition:  economic, political, social.

Economic

I feel like the most obvious thing to discuss here, the gender pay gap, is too lengthy of a discussion to summarize here, but here’s an interesting article from Time about it if you’re interested.  I used to dismiss this topic as a bit of a myth because I figured it was because women generally chose lower-paying careers than men, but a) is that maybe related to discrimination? and b) there have been studies that show that women and men doing the exact same job, with the exact same experience still have a pay gap.

My economic issue that proves that equality has not been reached economically is that advertising is still ridiculously sexist.  Spend 10-15 minutes watching this set of commercials (or this one) and try to tell me that advertising has progressed from the 50s with a straight face.  Guess what – you can’t.  Yes, commercials today don’t outright say things like “good tires mean more when a WOMAN is driving alone” or “how can such a pretty wife make such bad coffee??” but commercials that imply the woman of the house is the ONLY one who does any cooking, cleaning, or other domestic duties (well, sometimes dads can do stuff if the product is easy enough to use, like frozen pizza) show a pretty obvious perception – domestic duties are still a woman’s job.

Virtually all men I know of my generation can cook, clean, do their own laundry, change the toilet paper roll, etc.  The fact remains, though, that in the US, 85% of brand purchases are made by women (but 97% of advertisers are men).  So yeah – advertising is going to market to this demographic (without really knowing how), causing a bit of a chicken-and-egg cycle.  This doesn’t sound like economic equality to me.

(Yes – I do know that advertisers are currently researching how to market to men better, and I absolutely think it’s a step in the right direction.  But just because they’re working on it doesn’t mean the current issue won’t still be around for a long time.)

Political

Yup, women can vote.  Women can run for office.  Women can even get elected as president/prime minister/etc.  However, it’s not without about 10 times the struggle men have to get through.

It’s a pretty well-known idea that for a woman to be accepted and get ahead in business, politics, etc. she has to strike the right balance of being not-too-feminine-not-too-masculine... but definitely more masculine than feminine.  It’s a fact:  if you’re viewed as too “feminine” in a male-dominated field, you will not be taken seriously.  Feminine women are not smart, and that’s a pretty huge stereotype that we ALL buy into.  Don’t kid yourself on that one – think about it.  The smartest woman in the entire world could get dressed up like Marilyn Monroe and without speaking to her, you’d judge her as a bimbo.  I would.  I admit it.  That doesn’t mean it’s right, and it’s something I consciously have to remind myself of all the time.  On the other side of things, being too feminine makes you look stupid but being too masculine makes you look harsh and unlikeable – finding the right balance that the majority of voters will accept is near-impossible!

Case study:  Read this article (one of about a million) about Hillary Clinton’s famous “cry on the campaign trail.”  There’s really not much else to say.  

This is a topic I’m really, really interested in, so definitely expect more posts on the subject.  But for now if you’d like some more literature on the subject, check out the blog Name It. Change It. about calling out sexism in the media geared towards female politicians.  It will totally change your perspective on what to consider legitimate journalism.  Also, read the Wikipedia article about Michelle Obama and tell me if you think it’s right that the "accomplishment" she's most known for is being “The First Lady of Fashion.”  I threw up a little bit when I typed that. 

Political equality?  Totally laughable.  Let’s not even get into other countries, where women still can’t vote, drive, go out in public unchaperoned, etc.

Social

This is the one that causes the most arguments I think, and the one that the other two inequalities (economic, political) stem from.  Because in North America, women are “technically” equal by law, many people consider feminism to be over and done with.   

If you read that article about Hillary Clinton though, it brings to light the social issue that I feel most strongly about – women are technically allowed to make whatever choices we want (have a career, stay at home, keep our name, sleep with as many people as we want, wear whatever we want, cry in public) and behave the way we want but we are judged for them.  We're judged if we want to have a career and a family.  We're judged if we just want a career.  We're judged if we get a Ph.D. but decide to be "just a mom."  And yes, we should be able to say WHO CARES??  But for women who may have aspirations to get to the top politically or economically, a lot of those choices and behaviours are going to factor into whether we end up getting what we want out of life.  You can't become president if no one wants to vote you in, and there's a MASSIVE double standard here.

And men are judged too for doing "feminine" things.  Guys - what would your first thought be if one of your friends got married and took his wife's name?  Why are women generally favoured by courts during custody battles?  Why do men who choose to be stay-at-home dads face ridicule?  The fact of the matter is that no matter your gender, you're generally looked down on for making traditionally female choices, or if you're a guy doing something normal (but traditionally feminine) like cooking dinner, it's super impressive.  My own relatives are shocked and awed whenever Brahm bakes cookies.  How is any of this gender equality?

I really like this TED Talk with Eve Ensler (author of the Vagina Monologues).  It’s about accepting that, as a human, you have emotions and should embrace them, rather than being ashamed of your "feminine" qualities.  Emotions are not a bad thing!  Being feminine is not a bad thing!  But until society agrees with that sentiment and truly accepts it, you cannot tell me that feminism, the advocacy of women’s rights to equality on a social, economic, and political level, is no longer needed.

So – are you a feminist?

(I hope you enjoyed this post.  I realize that it only just brushed the surface of discussions to be had on the subject, and in no way to I consider the few examples I used to be the defining examples of why women are not equal, and I don't know if I stressed enough the problem that not only are women treated like Stepford Wives by advertising, but men are also shown huge disrespect.  So please - know that my stance on gender equality is that I want all people to be given the respect they have the rights to, regardless of gender.

I also understand that while I believe women are not treated with the respect they deserve in North America, we've still got it about a billion times better than women in the Congo or the Middle East, for example.  I don't mean to downplay those issues at all - I truly believe that the more power women gain in developed countries, this will be a big influence in positively changing the status of women all over the planet.)

Engagement Photos!

Me:  Did you look at our engagement photos yet?
Mom:  An looking at them rt now you look beautiful the turned out nice lots kiss e ones Haha told dad to look at work this morning

 

Photos by Organic Photography

Saving money on cosmetics

Me:  My avocado got soft and so I ate half and decided to put it on my face
Me:

Megan:  You're weird

HOWEVER, disgusting pictures aside, it felt awesome on my skin, like a nice, cooling moisturizer, and my skin  felt very soft and moisturized all day.

Will probably do again.

Reclaiming the Tux

I wasn't going to make a blog about this, but I've told the story to a few people now and every time I hear myself tell it, I realize how stupid it is, so I'm sharing it with the hope that you might be able to take something from it someday.

Last weekend Brahm and I went to Moore's to pick out wedding tuxes for him and his groomsmen.  I didn't really know what to expect but I was picturing him trying on a tux or something, but here is how "tux shopping" works at Moore's.  This might be slightly out of order as my memory is not so great:

1.  You go in and tell them you want to order tuxes.  They give you a catalogue to look at, and show you some mannequins, and say "pick the one you want."

2.  They all look basically the same.

3.  They take the groom's info, and the bride's info (at this point I was like "wtf is going on, why does Moore's care who I am whatsoever?  Oh, perhaps in case they can't get a hold of the groom and there is a tuxedo emergency, I guess that makes sense a little bit, sort of"), and the names of the groomsmen.

4.  You pick the tux you want. 

5.  You pick the style of vest you want and then the colour.

6.  You pick the shoes you want.

7.  They tell you what shirt to order, and also select some black socks and a tie that matches the vest and a pocket square that matches the shirt.

8.  You pay a $40 deposit and they tell you to come in 3 months before the wedding to get sized.

This is very different from dress shopping.  It takes half an hour or less.

Okay so anyway the weird thing that happened was after Brahm paid the $40 deposit the guy put together an info pamphlet with his receipt, and the confirmation number to give to his groomsmen and said "I'll give this to the bride, as she usually likes to hang on to this" and I took it and stood there and wondered if I should just be polite and pretend I actually cared about hanging onto this information but then I was like "screw it, I in no way support the effed-up wedding 'gender roles' of Western society where the groom is like 'duhhh what is wedding' and the bride is like 'sweetie, please remember to go get your tux sized tomorrow.  I packed you a lunch and printed out directions to Moore's and programmed a reminder into your calendar because you CANNOT BE TRUSTED to remember to do the easiest thing in the world if it is wedding-related'" so I decided to take a mini-stand in front of the Moore's guy and gave the pamphlet to Brahm and said "You take this, I don't care about it". 

The Moore's guy reacted by saying "Oh, an uncontrolling bride!  Very uncommon!"

At the time, I felt kind of smug about this comment.  Haha, yes, I AM an uncontrolling bride, thanks, we are awesome because we are planning our wedding together, yay yay we are the best.  But now, I have lost my smugness (mostly) and am just annoyed that this is what's become of modern wedding culture.

Ladies - have we become so obsessed with wedding perfection that we cannot trust the ACTUAL EASIEST THING of the whole wedding, sizing and picking up tuxedos, to the men who are going to be wearing them?  Seriously?  How is that not like not trusting a guy to dress himself in the morning?  Please, let's give these guys some credit.  If a man is getting married, I am going to go out on a limb and say that he is responsible enough to figure out how to dress himself for this very important day without his future wife's supervision, and if he isn't - you've got a whole other problem on your hands.  And - call me crazy - he is probably responsible enough to inform his friends to also pick up their wedding attire as well.

Gentlemen - if your future wife is actually trying to supervise this ridiculously simple task, please tell her to calm the frig down and trust you on this one.  (Side note - I have this wedding planning book from the 70's that actually says the best man is supposed to be the equivalent of today's "day-of" wedding coordinator - what happened???  Extra side note - the gender-specific language on that website proves my point.)  Your wedding is one of the first major rites of passage that you are going to go through together - why not plan it together?  Guys - can you please take a stand against the modern wedding industry and Reclaim the Tux?

Of course, there may be special cases where the groom is the kind of guy who is completely absentminded and does need a reminder from his partner - but this should be the exception, not the norm.  I refuse to believe that the majority of men are so disorganized that they can't be trusted to do this.

I have a feeling Moore's took my info so they could call me and tell me to remind Brahm of various tux-related information closer to the wedding.  I will be directing them to call him personally.

Two restaurants you need to give your money to - Part 2

Aaaaand the second restaurant in Saskatoon that you need to be eating at is Christie's Il Secondo, just off Broadway!

This place is a bakery and also pizzeria, and the best pizzeria I have ever eaten at by far.  This is probably the most authentic Italian pizza you are going to find around Saskatoon, and it is SO GOOD.

Honestly I am not that big of a pizza fan in the conventional sense - I HATE frozen, bready storebought pizza, I am not that into greasy, almost deep-fried Pizza Hut pizza, but Il Secondo makes me love pizza and want to eat it every day.

Picture in your mind a thin, bubbly pizza crust topped in fresh tomato sauce, real mozzarella, basil, pancetta, olives, and artichokes, cooked in a wood-fired oven so it's just the right amount of crispy.  Brahm and I both agree that this is the only pizza crust either of us has ever not wanted to just leave after eating the part with all the toppings.  Honestly - this is the best pizza crust I've ever had in my life.

It's not often that I am sad when I'm done eating pizza, but I am really sad when an Il Secondo pizza is gone.  We both kept saying "this is SO GOOD" over and over.

Now we have established that the food is amazing, let's talk about the service - it's counter service, but the staff is all very friendly.  We were pleasantly surprised the other night when, after trying to decide between two pizzas and then ordering one of them, the cashier approached us at our table and asked if we'd like to try half-and-half.  She definitely didn't have to do that!

They've also got a ton of delicious looking (and tasting) baked goods, and Brahm had an excellent and beautiful latte there the first time we went.

The only downside - they have weird hours.  It's really hard to go there for supper any other night than Friday or Saturday, and we tried to go about 5 times over the course of a year before we finally got in when they were open.  But it was worth it!

Pricing - the most expensive pizza which can serve two people, unless you both want to gorge yourselves, is 18 bucks.  Instead of ordering a whole pizza for yourself though I'd recommend sharing a pizza and one or two of the baked goods for dessert - there's a satisfying meal for two for under 30 bucks.

WARNING: once again, Urban Spoon reviews appear to be from people who would prefer to go to Boston Pizza (literally this time).  Don't listen to them, because they are redneck morons who probably sat there complaining that the crust was not stuffed with cheese bites that you could rip off and dip in ranch sauce.

Here's Brahm's review from the first time we went, which includes a picture of our amazing pizza.