2003 - Happy New Year

Wherever and however you celebrate ... enjoy and be safe.

Herb Ritts

You will be missed. An early gem here.

Thursday Threesome

Onesome: Merry - Merry times? Hey, did you have a Merry Christmas? How did things turn out for you and yours after all the work and time you put in preparing for the big day?

I had a great Christmas, thanks for asking. Lots of food, family and friends. My absolute favorite present ... here.

Twosome: Christmas - Christmas presents? Did you get what you wanted from Santa? ... or are you headed back to the stores with the rejects on 'Reverse Shopping Day'?

Yup, I did (see Onesome). In Canada, December 26 is Boxing Day, a national holiday. In recent years, it's become one of the busiest retail shopping days of the year. Or as Iike to refer to it, the day to go buy 'everything you wanted but didn't get for Christmas'.

Threesome: Everyone! - Is everyone back to the normal routine today, like work and homemaking and such. ... or are you still entertaining? ... or maybe just taking a well deserved break from it all?

I'm still trying to recover from all the pushing and shoving at the Boxing Day sales yesterday. My biggest coup was the pair of Kenneth Cole Reaction mules, regularly priced at C$220, snagged for C$80.

Seasons Greetings

Happy Holidays to those that are celebrating the season.

I know it's been two weeks since my last entry and I'm hoping that I haven't lost any regular viewers ... heh. There have been four, count them, technicians from the cable company in to try and figure out why my cable signal has been intermittent in the last two weeks. Of course, that's four different explanations as to why it's happening. My favorite is the one about a possible Nintendo game running interference somewhere nearby. My question was then, do you think it's Mario or Zelda?

The Scibble Pad records it's 1000th visitor today!

> Insert shameless self-promotion here <

Thanks :)

What to throw out and when?

Table of condiments that periodically go bad.

If you're like me and throw out things only when it becomes unrecognizable, print the table and stick it on the fridge. Thanks to ||| trr ||| for the link.

Careers Section

To the person in charge of exciting new adventures ... I'm ready for my next one.

The pig farm - preliminary hearing update

Judge David Stone rejects the need for a complete publication ban on pretrial hearings.

"Under Canadian law, reporters are allowed to attend the hearings but cannot publish details of the evidence until it is presented to a jury at a trial.

Defense attorney Peter Ritchie had complained the court's standard publication ban was inadequate because this case was getting international media coverage and the law cannot cover foreign journalists, whose material would be available in Canada via the Internet and other means."

Pretrial hearing scheduled to begin January 13, 2003.

Thursday Threesome

Onesome: Free - Do you watch the ads for "Buy this and get this trinket free" just so you can get that second gift? ... and then wonder what to do with the first one?

Not guilty unless you count the fries at Mickey D's during the hockey card promotions.

Twosome: Gift - How the heck do you figure out how to buy gifts for family members? You know, the ones with no list who say, "Oh, whatever ... "

Well, my favorite place to shop for 'whatever' has been Crate & Barrel. Even for myself, heh.

Threesome: Wrapping - Are you a wrapping maven? ... or are are you wrappingly challenged? Who does the gift wrapping around your place anyway?

Wrappingly challenged. My mother would die if she ever saw some of the packages I've had to wrap on my own. She's the wrapping maven -- crisp corners, tape used sparingly and hidden, of course, plus her ribbons and bows are impeccable -- help!

The pig farm - freedom of speach at risk?

The defendant's lawyers are in court asking for a complete ban on proceedings at the preliminary hearing, because "it was the only way to ensure a free trial in the age of the Internet".

"News organizations in U.S. cities along the border have clashed before with Canadian courts over the ban, and a lawyer representing several Seattle television stations said Ritchie's sweeping request was "trying to shut down ideas.""

Stay tuned.

Where did they come from?

I was reviewing my blog stats over at Servustats and was surprised to see that this page registered 127 hits on November 27, 2002. Now, it didn't matter that I wasn't in town, so to speak, but other than the counter, there was no trace evidence of that traffic -- no comment(s), no guestmap mark. So, I did some more digging and found the magnet -- the YSL M7 ad. Does sex sell? I don't know the answer to that, but it seems to help increase blog traffic. If any of you November 27th visitors return, let me know somehow.

Thank you ... now back to your regular programming.