Equality

It was only recently that I noticed one of my male co-workers who has his office on the second floor of the building I work at come up to use the Men's room on the third floor. I just assumed that the toilets downstairs were probably in bad shape. But it just occured to me as I made my way downstairs today to heat my lunch (the kitchen is on the second floor) that there is no Men's room on the second floor!

Now that I think of it there are only two men on the floor and perhaps the management decided these guys can walk up to use the washroom. But there is a Ladies room down there. Some will argue that there are other washrooms on the same floor, just outside the building we work at. But what would the women say if the situation was reversed and two women on a floor had no washroom?

So much for equal rights!

Confession

I was walking home from work yesterday afternoon when I found one of our elderly neighbours stuffing his recycle bin to the maximum and in his efforts spilling a lot of the trash on the sidewalk. Being the good neighbour that I am (or not), helped him pile the rubbish in the bin, all the while flinching at how much garbage was being stuffed into the recycle bin.

Earlier in the day hubby and I had a chat about "recycle or garbage tonight" and I was pretty sure we said it was garbage, so I thought I must share that with the nice gentleman and I did. I very confidently told him it was "garbage day" and not recycle, so he should transfer some of the trash into the garbage bin and put it out. He thanked me and added that I was very kind. I walked away feeling good about having helped a dear old man.

Later in the evening as I was cleaning out the trash in the kitchen etc., I double checked the calendar and it had a clear picture of the bloody blue bin, which meant "recycle", urrghh, I had misinformed the poor man. I wanted to walk up to his house and tell him I was wrong, but the devil in me said, "it is way too cold outside, you will need to pack on the layers to go out," so I stayed home. I couldn't check this morning as to what he had put out. I will apologise the next time I see him and if I see someone struggling with an overflowing bin I will help them pick their trash up, and walk by saying nothing. Lesson learned!

Could this happen?

I don't remember Osama releasing a hate message just weeks before the previous US presidential election, and had no idea that it had a lot to do with Kerry losing. But could it happen again? What are the odds of McCain winning if that were to happen? Would people panic and go with an old-timer rather than take their chances with a man who actually has a functioning brain?

Produce

I might sound a bit like the Queen of France who suggested people eat cake if they have no money for bread, but this summer we tried our luck with vegetables in the garden, well, if you call tomatoes and chilies vegetables in response to all the news about the global food crisis.

Anyhow, we are pleased with the outcome. We did nothing but plant and watch them grow. Mother nature took care of the watering and the beds had just been done so the soil was good, and we got a decent crop. But there were more tomatoes and chilies than two people could consume so it was distributed in the neighbourhood. It felt good to do that, especially for kind neighbours who bring fantastic food over at times. But one thing we did learn was that it is important to pinch off the little shoots that appear between the main stalk and the branches. We didn't learn this soon enough, so the plants did look a bit like Jack's beanstalk before we cut it back. It was after cutting them back that we started to see more fruit. The chilies however just thrived and we got a good crop. Ah...the test of fresh chillies in a sambol...a little taste of home.

I must thank the girl for inspiring me to put the pictures together like I have. I have done it once, hopefully can do it again. You know how it is with computers, you do something once and then completely forget what you did. Well, at least I do that, all the time, much to the annoyance of my hubby.

Why?

I did not want to rant about the US presidential elections, but goodness me it is getting to be a drag. I wish Palin would shut up, I am still trying to figure out why McCain would pick a scatter brain like her to be his running mate. The Republicans also ought to get themselves better "coaches" for the debates, perhaps different ones too, so Palin and McCain don't sound like they just came out of Debate 101 classes. And in all fairness, both the men are beginning to sound like dummies, saying the same thing over and over again and stop the bloody finger pointing!

Since Obama sounds like the only one with functioning gray matter at the moment, I do hope the Americans vote for him. But its common knowledge there are enough Americans with no gray matter whatsoever who will vote for McCain and as a result for Palin. How sad is that? I know Obama is leading in polls but that is no guarantee he will win. This is American afterall, and they did elect George Bush Jr., twice!! Well, that may be stretching it a bit, who knows what happened the first time.

Nevertheless, what has me is that Canadian federal elections are less than a week away and no one is talking about it. Canada will feel the effects of the American economic crisis more than any other country in the world and I don't think even the Canadians care. Unfortunately, there is little to choose from in terms of a decent leader north of the border. Australia got rid of John Howard, and Tony Blair is gone, so it would be nice if the Republicans take the back seat for a bit in the US and gosh wouldn't it be nice to see what the New Democratic Party can do for Canada! But it certainly would be one big experiment...sigh...

Mammary Glands

Mammary glands, more commonly known as breasts or boobs, are specialised sweat glands. Although the secretion is not quite the same as sweat, it nevertheless is a sweat gland. And hence I wonder what the obsession with it is? It is a mass of adipose tissue (fancy way of saying fat) with a lot of ducts that allow milk production and secretion during pregnancy and lactation, that being the purpose of those glands. But some would argue that is serves more than that just the purpose of satiating a howling infant. I won't get into that.

I got to thinking a lot about it over the weekend because I went shopping for support apparatus for the glands. As I paid the hefty bill, I wondered why men are turned on by big breasts, is it a sign of heightened fertility in women or something? And it must be because men are attracted to larger glands that women strive to increase their size, some of them, at any cost. There are however women that have had to battle the constant attention their glands have attracted due to their size, and the battle goes up one level when these women get pregnant - one can easily go up two sizes, and in some cases the growing fetus does not overshadow the growing bossoms. So much so that people notice the breasts before the belly.

So perhaps the easy solution for women with smaller breasts is to get pregnant? And if a man's only complaint about a woman he likes is that she has smaller breasts, then he should get her pregnant and watch it grow? And it will grow by the day! And I hear from the veterans that the size never goes back to the pre-pregnancy size. So...hope for the teeny ladies and not so much hope for the buxom ones.

(picture courtesy funny-potato.com)