DavidsTea

A girl I am currently working and traveling with introduced me to something super awesome - DavidsTea.

It's a relatively new chain of tea stores that make super amazing loose leaf tea.  I'm drinking a cup of their maple rooibis as I type this - so amazingly delicious.

I love tea, a lot.  I think the differences between all the varieties of tea are pretty interesting as well.  This summer I've been growing peppermint, chocolate mint, and lemon balm so I can make my own super fresh herbal teas.  Some of my favourite bagged teas are Celestial Seasonings Chai (black or white, but I think I prefer the black because it's a bit stronger and also, this brand beats all other chais because it is more spice and less black tea flavour), Celestial Seasonings Candy Cane Lane (decaf peppermint green, only available at Christmas), Twinings Pomegranate black, and Tim Hortons green tea.  I've wanted to get more into loose leaf teas but they are so much more expensive and less accessible and I am kind of lazy and hate washing the metal infuser because it's too hot to touch when I take it out of the cup and then I end up forgetting about it until bits of tea have dried into it.

DavidsTea might change that though.  Loose leaf teas that come pre-packaged so I don't have to ask an attendant for ____ grams of every variety I want to get, being able to sample smell the tea before buying, AND they sell disposable tea filters (like tea bags you fill on your own)!  Maybe you can buy the disposable filters at Walmart or something too but I've never seen them anywhere.

The bad news is that DavidsTea doesn't have a location in Saskatoon, but it DOES have a location in Regina and the entire chain has only existed for about 2 years.  So here's hoping for a Saskatoon store in the near future!  Until then, I'll be road tripping to Regina and/or shopping online.

TLC marathon woooo

I don't have the channel TLC at home so when I'm staying in hotels it is sometimes a treat to get to watch reality shows about clothes and wedding dresses and bakeries all night (not so much a fan of the shows about tattoos and motorcycles and giant families though).

Tonight I got to watch Say Yes to the Dress (LOVE IT) and the NEW Say Yes to the Dress, Say Yes to the Dress Atlanta which was so awesome, AND this new show called DC Cupcakes.

The cupcake show is pretty good except that a few of the scenes are obviously staged.  But oh well.  Anyway there was just this scene where a mom came in and was like "hi, I want a billion cupcakes for my daughter's sweet 16 party and here are the swatches of the table linens and also the swatch of the colour of her dress, plz make cupcakes to match."  Ummmmm WHAT???

So anyway they made these absolutely gorgeous cupcake centrepieces.  Cupcakes that looked like yellow roses were attached into clay pots to look like beautiful pots of flowers!  So beautiful.  Anyway the mom took one look and was like "Ummmm these DO NOT look like the swatch I gave you."

What???  I just can't believe people have so much money to throw around that they have massive sweet 16 parties with swatches in the first place, let alone flat out complain about the colour of icing (which totally didn't clash with the swatches and looked way better than the colour of the stupid swatch) without saying how great the centrepieces looked.  Are you kidding me?  Who are these people?  I don't want to know them.

ALSO:  these new iPhone 4 commercials where people are chatting on FaceTime (I think that's what it's called?) are so lame.  They aren't heartwarming at all.

Donut peaches??

These things are apparently called "donut peaches."  How do they work?  Is the pit really small?  They are so weird looking.  I found them at Safeway in Northern BC.

High Rolla

If you guys have ever thought to yourselves, I wonder if Robyn is some sort of secret high roller, like I wonder if she does things like fly on planes that have Porsche commercials on them, well, you would be correct.  I am indeed a high roller.

Not only did I win $2.95 total in two days' worth of GAMBLING at Niagara Falls casinos this past March, not only did I recently take a flight to Ottawa where there was a PORSCHE COMMERCIAL this past July (they clearly only play that commercial when they know there are high rollers on the plane who would actually buy a Porsche), but now the word is getting out about my high rollerness (rollery?) - Hammacher Schlemmer is sending me catalogs in the mail to try and sell me a TWO MILLION DOLLA submarine.

I have no idea how I got on the Hammacher Schlemmer mailing list.  When I got the first catalog a few months ago I have to admit, I thought it was a joke until I remembered that I am really rich ($2.95 remember that, I also currently have a $2 winning lottery ticket to cash, 5 cent candies are on me) and they probably heard about me and decided that I am worthy of their prestigious magazine.  But anyway, I got the new catalog today with THIS on the cover:

I'm not kidding, apparently it is a real live two-person submarine that can go to 1000 feet.  And most importantly, it costs ACTUAL TWO MILLION DOLLARZ.

Have a look at the catalog listing yourself.  I honestly did a double take when I saw that there was something in an actual catalog that I was receiving that cost 7 figures.  Anyway I probably won't be buying it because you know, I don't want to flaunt my immense wealth.

Degrassi Takes Manhattan: Movie Review

Before we get started, make a note that I really only saw 2/3 of this movie, so it won't be totally complete, but my sisters told me what happens in the end so basically I saw the whole movie.

Anyway, in late elementary school/early high school I used to watch Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High reruns on CBC after school, and was excited to watch Degrassi: The Next Generation when it premiered.  I have seen most of the episodes in the 10-season run and while I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a fan, I have enjoyed watching the show and following the characters' stories for the most part.

Degrassi has always been a show that centred around teen issues - any issue you can think of, the characters have probably dealt with it at some point.  But the nice thing about the old Degrassi and TNG's first few seasons was that the only thing making the series unrealistic and unrelatable for teen fans was the ridiculously high number of issues the same characters dealt with week after week - other than being bombarded with problems, the characters generally came from middle class families, went to a public school, had acne and bad haircuts, and wore t-shirts and jeans  - they what one might call normal kids.

Someone once pointed out that the series began to change when longtime fan Kevin Smith asked to guest star and the series created a plotline about Kevin Smith shooting a movie at Degrassi, kissing Caitlin Ryan, and giving dating advice to the characters.  No offense, but Kevin Smith coming to hang out at your school isn't realistic.  Getting Kevin Smith involved with the issues gave the series an almost surreal feel.  Still, the Kevin Smith episodes were pretty early in the series and usually when he left the series was able to get back to normal... sort of.  Kevin Smith did help to kickstart the Hollywood career of one of the characters (as in, the character became a Hollywood actress, not the actress got a real movie career) and after she became "famous" (which the show never actually focused on), a lot of other characters began making it big as famous musicians, working in the fashion industry, etc.  Eventually, especially over the past couple of seasons, the show started hiring better looking actors and having more sexually charged plotlines, no doubt to compete with the shift in content of other high school dramas like the extremely inappropriate Gossip Girl and 90210.

It makes me sad that Degrassi ended up selling out to try to blend in rather than stay true to its original premise.  In the new episodes, the issues are still there but they seem to take a backseat to major storylines about dating and friendship drama and being rich.  I suppose it's nice that the characters are allowed to develop more, but I liked the Degrassi that you could distinguish from other teen dramas because it was first and foremost a show about issues.

Which now finally brings me to my discussion of the latest Degrassi movie, Degrassi Takes Manhattan.  It was so, so, soooooo bad.  Like, seriously.  I am not kidding, it seemed like bad fanfiction.  Did they draw plotlines out of a suggestion box?

Two major characters who have been in the series from season 1, Emma and Spinner, who have never really been that close of friends, got drunk at Niagara Falls and started making out and got married.  Then they wanted to get divorced but then they were like "Hey this has been the happiest week of my life, let's really get married."  Hey Degrassi here is a great opportunity to run with the issue of teen marriage and why it is not a good idea... but apparently (I skipped out on the ending, remember) the movie showed this teen marriage after dating for a week as a really positive and smart idea.  Good one, Degrassi.

Some characters that were CLEARLY added into the series to compete with Gossip Girl, the extremely rich Declan and Fiona (so why do they go to a public community school again???), moved back to Manhattan for the summer with no parents and Declan got his girlfriend Holly J an internship with TVM (MTV) so she could come with him.  But then Fiona also got an internship with TVM and tried to make life terrible for Holly J because she was jealous that she was dating her brother because she was in love with her TWIN BROTHER????  Creepy teen fanfiction alert.  The climax of this storyline happened when Fiona KISSED her brother to try and make Holly J jealous.  WHAT???

The final really boring storyline was that this other character named Jane was also in New York and met this creepy 35 year old man in Central Park (he wasn't supposed to be creepy or 35 but he tote was) and joined his band as the new singer, made out with him, but then he got back together with his GF so she was sad and apparently she tried to go stop Spinner and Emma's wedding but then didn't because she saw how happy Emma made Spinner.  Oh yeah, this was because Jane and Spinner had dated for like 3 years.  Are you kidding me, how does any of this make sense at all.

Final verdict:  worst fanfiction ever and most unrealistic movie ever.  The moment I realized how bad this movie really was was when I saw that Jessi from Jessi and Dan from The Hills Aftershow was one of the guest stars and I said to myself, "Jessi, you host The Hills Aftershow.  You are so above this movie." It was that bad.

Potato Chips in the Microwave

Did you know that you can make potato chips in the microwave?

These ones got a bit overcooked because I cut them too thick and couldn't find a good cooking time.  But all you really have to do is cut potatoes super thin, mist them with a bit of cooking spray (canola oil - and this step is optional if you want to go totally fat-free), put them on a plate and microwave on high for 3-5 minutes (more if you cut them too thick like I did).

Healthy potato chips!

Sorry that the picture is a bit blurry; I used my phone because I was kind of too lazy to go get my camera. But not too lazy to make potato chips from scratch?

PS - Saved by the Bell is on and it's the episode about writing a new school song.  All of a sudden, all of the characters know how to play every instrument, including playing the piano by ear... good one.

Thanks, MAGGOTS

I have some sad news.  Maggots got my broccoli :(

Luckily, I was able to sample a tiny bit of the broccoli before the maggots (of the cabbage root fly) completely killed my plants.  Oh maaan garden broccoli is so good!  Next year I am taking that website's advice and making some sort of barrier over the roots so those idiot maggots can't eat my broccoli.

I guess this is what gardening is about for beginners - getting your plants eaten by idiot bugs so you can learn how to protect them in the future.

I'm not going to post a picture, because it was really gross.  I threw the plants into my garbage can where I discovered that the bottom of the garbage can is covered in a few litres' worth of garbage juice.  What a gross day.

Bounce Dryer Bar - Saving you seconds since 2010

Sometimes when a stupid TV commercial comes on (or I see a stupid print ad or company name, for that matter - really, anything ridiculous related to marketing or branding) I like to imagine in my mind the "board room" meeting where all the advertising executives came up with the concept.  Right now the imaginary meeting that comes to mind is one of Wired 96.3, Saskatoon's Douchebaggiest Radio Station (TM).  When my sisters drive my car they always switch the station to it and I get in and hear a DJ with a FAKE FAKE FAKE Australian accent.

"Okay guys, we're about to launch this new radio station and we want to appeal to youth.  Like, we want to be really cool.  What can we do to be cool?"

"Uhhhhh well as DJs we could have interviews with ourselves on the website answering questions with REALLY FUNNY answers"

"OMG that's gold.  DO IT.  What else?"

"Uhhhh I can pretend to be Australian?"

"O.  M.  G.  Chicks LOVE Australians!!!!  We're doing this.  We are sooooo doing this."

"We could also sponsor events at The Pat"

"The Pat!  Youth love The Pat.  PARTYYYYYYY GET DRUUUUNK  but seriously, the Australian accent idea!  We're going to put all the other stations in town out of business!"

Wired 96.3, honestly, you are the douchiest radio station I've ever heard.  I am pretty sure that's how the meeting went down.  Also, I'm sorry if you don't have Facebook and can't view that link.  The Pat doesn't seem to have a website and the best thing I could find to show its awesomeness was the Facebook group with 23 members.

BUT ANYWAY that has nothing to do with what I actually want to talk about, which is the new Bounce Dryer Bar.  The Bounce Dryer Bar is this stick of fabric softener that you stick to the side of your dryer instead of putting in sheets every time you do laundry, and it apparently lasts about 2 months.

The ad campaign for the BDB isn't less waste (throwing out sheets all the time) or freeing up more cupboard space by not having to keep an extra box around - and don't get ahead of yourself, I agree that really, both of those reasons for using the BDB are reaching already.  What is the ad campaign focused on?  FREEING UP MORE TIME.

The current commercial opens up with a mom introducing herself and telling viewers that she has kids and a husband and is a really busy mom.  The Bounce Dryer Bar can just be put in the dryer and forgotten about for a couple of months, rather than her having to spend all that extra time putting a dryer sheet into the laundry every time.  Seriously, the angle they're going for is that the BDB saves you time.

I'm not sure how anyone could actually accept that as a valid reason, unless for whatever reason people fold their dryer sheets into origami cranes or something before putting them into the dryer.  Really, Bounce?  Saving time is the best you could come up with?  I honestly can't even imagine that board meeting... nope, nothing.  It's like everyone skipped out and the only person who showed up didn't really want to do it so they just wrote the first thing that came to mind and somehow, someone approved it and hired actors and PEOPLE GOT PAID and it became a full-blown campaign.

As North Americans, have we really accepted our laziness to the point where saving five seconds a day is the number one selling point for a product from a major brand?  Don't answer that.

Delicious Cheese Samples

You guys!  Today I discovered something amazing.  I was at Sobeys for the second time today by accident because I locked myself out of my house as I was getting dropped off at home after coffee with some peeps, so I phoned my sisters and they were at Sobeys so I got dropped off at Sobeys instead, but ANYWAY I was at Sobeys and my sisters were buying deli meat and I was looking at all the gourmet cheese because I LOVE cheese.

BTW.  I love cheese so much that I am not sure if I would give up meat or cheese if I had to choose.  I love meat but I also love cheese and honestly, I'm not sure which it would be.

So okay, I was in the cheese section and suddenly I spotted a plate of cheese cubes with toothpicks in them with a small sign that said "Maple Cheddar."  The plate was just sitting there on a stack of other cheeses, not very prominent and basically hidden unless someone was looking through the cheese section specifically for maple cheddar samples.

Have I stumbled upon something awesome?  Maybe EVERY SINGLE TIME I've gone to Sobeys there has been a plate of delicious cheese samples in the gourmet cheese section and I've just never noticed because they make it so hard to find.  Maybe the delicious cheese samples are only for the true cheese fans:  if you spend enough time looking at all the cheese you'll eventually find the delicious cheese samples.

I'll keep you updated.

A whole bunch of Friends helping out Friends.

My cable is through SaskTel Max, which includes Max Front Row pay-per-view movies.  MFR offers a selection of new releases each month and also a "theme" list of movies - for example, a couple of months ago the theme pack was "Romance" and one could choose a PPV movie from a list of old and new romantic comedies.

This month, the theme is "Friends Helping Friends"

"Okay, new SaskTel summer high school intern, your first task is to write the description of this month's Front Row theme pack for the Max guide."

"Ummmm lol okay what is it lol"

"It's called 'Friends Helping Friends' and it's a bunch of movies about friends helping friends.  Just write something like that but make it sound more like a professional description."

"Ummmmmmm how do I do that lol.  What did you say again?"

"It's just a whole bunch of friends helping friends!  Seriously, it's not that hard to paraphrase."

"A... whole... bunch...  heyyyyyyyy I should say 'helping OUT friends' instead of just 'helping friends'!  That will TOTALLY make it seem like it's in my own words.  Should I capitalize 'friends'?"

"Arghhhh what do you think?"

"I'll take that as a yes." 

45 minutes later, the above descriptor was born.