Geeky Cat Miusings

When I picked up some photo’s from Blacks this weekend the cashier asked me how many photographs I requested. I puzzled over the importance of the quantity to this fellow as I’m sure they don’t file the photos based on quantity. Most likely they would be stored by name but perhaps that piece of information is a security check to make sure I was the one who requested the printing of the photos and not just someone trying to grab photos that are not rightfully mine. So I inform the fellow that there were about 23 photographs in the bunch. He replied “What’s the matter? Life is not very exciting at the moment?”. I can appreciate he was trying to be funny and at the same time trying to encourage me to take more photos and print them for the business’s sake. But I did not really appreciate the comment because he was suggesting that maybe my life was not exciting enough. I really couldn’t be bothered to explain to the fellow with the foot-in-the-mouth syndrome that my life has actually been quite good of late, but I think he should know that suggesting to people that their life is just a snore-fest is not a very good customer relations policy.

Attention all customer service representatives: Please choose your comments carefully….always be positive, let the customers know how wonderful they are, and how your products will enhance their lives. A person with sufficient self-esteem will find your demeaning comments objectionable.

Music selection is Deck the Hall from Christmas Around the World.

Yesterday I attended a holiday party and the hostess had a very pretty Christmas tree. As I sat there drinking my holiday drink (apple martini) I wondered how the Christmas tree tradition started. Well I couldn’t get on the computer right away and find out but I looked into it today and this is what I found out:

• Christmas trees were first sold commercially in the US since 1850.
• Only 1/2 to 3/4 of all trees planted will survive to become Christmas trees — the rest succumb to wind, hail, drought and other hardships.
• It takes between 6 to 10 years to grow a Christmas tree.
• The first known decorated Christmas tree was in Riga, Latvia in 1510 (though this is in dispute).
• While Christmas trees remove dust and pollen from the air, after 10 days it can give off up to 10 times the normal number of allergy-triggering mold spores.
• The first artificial Christmas trees made in the U.S. were produced by a company that made toilet brushes. I wonder where the inventor was sitting when he/she came up with the artificial tree idea?
• More than 330,000 real Christmas trees are sold in the U.S. via e-commerce or catalogs.
• Christmas trees are grown in all the 50 U.S. states — including Hawaii!
• Evergreen trees have been used to celebrate the winter season from before the birth of Christ.
• The ancient Romans decorated trees with small pieces of metal during Saturnalia, a winter festival in honor of Saturnus, the god of agriculture.
• During the middle ages the Paradise tree was decorated with apples as a symbol of the feast of Adam and Eve on December 24^th.
• Real Trees are a renewable, recyclable resource. For every real Christmas tree harvested, up to 3 seedlings are planted in its place the following spring.
• There are about 500,000 acres used in production for growing Christmas Trees in the U.S. Each acre provides the daily oxygen requirements of 18 people.
• Artificial trees contain non-biodegradable plastics and possible metal toxins such as lead.

Decorating a Christmas tree can be a great way to express your personal style and it can be fun. Though I think sitting back in a comfy chair with my favourite beverage in hand is even more fun. If you want to get all fancy with your tree, you can make your Christmas lights flash to music (Please let me know if you are making your Christmas lights blink to music…so cool!).

If you are low key like me, you might opt to have a Christmas tree screen saver or create something in a drawing program to share with friends. Stay tuned because I am working on it.

Do you love chocolate? I love good quality chocolate and enjoy trying different brands and mixtures, including chocolate mixed with chili. Thanks to a thoughtful friend of mine who discovered a chocolate lover’s cooking class at the Whole Foods Market, I had the opportunity to join cookbook author Lisa Slater for an evening of decadent chocolate delights. For only $10 you learn much about cooking with chocolate, eat all the heavenly dishes listed below, and receive $5 Whole Foods Market gift card.

I have heard that chocolate can be used in cooking but have never experimented with it and so I was really excited to try the chili con chocolate. There was cocoa powder in the bean chili which was then layered into a tortilla along with guacamole and it was all covered with a chocolate sauce. It was the best chili I ever had!

This was the menu… I don’t think there is any restaurant in Toronto that can offer this kind of dinner theme:

• Salad of shave pears, goat cheese, cocoa-ed nut and chocolate balsamic glaze - I thought this was heavenly!!!
• Three bean chili spiced with cocoa and cocoa nibs in tortilla cups
• chocolate caramel tart
• pots de crème au chocolat
• spicy hot chocolate

I had no idea I could eat so much chocolate in one sitting!

Whole Foods Market overs a variety of courses including lectures on well being. So it is well worth trying one out and using the coupon to pick up one of their prepared foods or specialty items.

Hello Everyone!

I have been busy lately with trips out to Prince Edward County including Picton, Belleville and the Sandbanks Provincial Park. It is really beautiful out there and I loved taking photos. I was very lucky because the sky was just gorgeous:

To end a very fine week I went to a concert given by David Francey in the Newmarket Townhall. David is one of the biggest stars of Canadian folk Music and he has truly mastered the art of storytelling through song. He has won Juno awards in the Roots and Traditional Album of the Year. Do check out his cds but, if it is at all possible, try to see him live as he’s truly incredible on stage.

Tonight I am reading Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk for my book club meeting tomorrow and I have signed up for a chocolate class for chocoholics this week. So it will be a busy week for me but I hope to keep in touch with you real soon.

Here is a quote from the book:

“..if you’re not on videotape, or better yet, live on satellite hookup in front of the whole world watching, you don’t exist. You’re that tree falling in the forest that nobody gives a rat’s ass about”