Blog or white ... because it never is.

My parents believed in teaching me money management skills at a very young age.  For as long as I could remember, I had a weekly allowance.  When I was five, my allowance was $5.00/week.  Believe it or not, that more than lasted me a week and I saved most of it.  Also, I usually ended up saving more than $5.00/week.  My mom smoked and cigarettes were $.86/pack.  When she ran out, she would give me a dollar to go to the store to get one for her and I would pocket the change for my troubles.  (How times have changed!)  When my dad would take me to the curling rink to watch him curl, he would give me enough money for a bag of chips and a pop.  I would eat other kids chips and drink water from the fountain.  This added up plus change that I found in my mom's purse and my dad's pants as well as gifts from family.  I did well.   One day, when I was 5, I came across a beautiful doll that literally took my breathe away.  I had...

I like watching Global Winnipeg in the morning for the local news.  I could watch other stations, but I really like Shannon Cuciz.  I think she is genuine and welcoming.   I like her style of interviewing and I have enjoyed watching her evolve and gain confidence. Today's news was particularly disturbing because of two stories. The first one warned viewers of a scam being perpetrated in Winnipeg.  Apparently, someone bought a PlayStation on kijiji for $200 and instead of getting the Play Station, they received a bag of empty binders.  We saw an excerpt from the police news conference where we warned about this scam.   Also, there was a security camera picture of the perpetrator entering an apartment building.  What a waste of time and energy.   You can't go on a single buy-sell site without seeing warning everywhere not to hand over any money until you determine that the goods you are receiving is as described.  We shouldn't waste the ...

I always get a little chuckle out of people who have time management problems, mostly because I don't think that is really their issue.   A very small percentage of people actually have a time management problem.  A time-management problem is usually just a symptom of something else. When I was a child, I took organ lessons twice a week and in order to be successful, my parents and I were both told that I had to practice atleast one hour every day.   I had a time management problem finding this one hour every day.  My mom didn't think it was time-management.  She thought I was just lazy and not grateful for the opportunity I had.  She was wrong about me being lazy, the truth was that I simply didn't want to do it.  My parents and I had different goals when it came to the organ.  They wanted me to be a professional organist.  I just wanted to know enough to walk into a bar anywhere in the world and be able to play enough to warrant som...

Mother-in-laws get a bad rap, or do they?   There is something about a MIL.  You can clean your house until it is practically sterile, but somehow your MIL can find that one spec of dust under the bathroom mat.  The movie Monster and -in-Law was a blockbuster, not because it was particularly good, but because the title resonated with so many.  They are often referred to as Outlaws as opposed to In-Laws.  Yet, I have heard rumours that it doesn't have to be that way.  Some people say their MIL is their best friend. I am now a mother-in-law and I want to be the best mother-in-law that I can be.  In order to do this, I think I need a lot of help.  There is only our source of help that I trust.  A Self-Help Book.  I want to write that book and I need your help. I need experiences about mothers-in-law.  The good ones. The monsters-in-law.  I want to hear from different cultures.  When it is not a positive relationship, I wa...

There is actually some science to developing friendships.  First of all, people become acquaintances. That means that they know each other, usually in one setting.  We know parents whose children are members of the same sports time as your child, for example.  They are acquaintances because all we really have in common is our children's activities.  Some people are comfortable having lots of acquaintances and never desire the relationship to progress further. You cross the acquaintance threshold into the friend zone when you decide to take the relationship to a different level.  You get to know that person in more than one setting.   You go out for coffee with an acquaintance that you know from the gym.   You start meeting acquaintances from work on Fridays for a week-end beverage and debrief.  You talk and you find out more than them.  There are casual friends.  You enjoy spending time with them, but you are not going to trust them wi...

Did Kellyanne seriously accuse the previous administration of monitoring/bugging Trump through his microwave? What purpose would any one having in bugging Trump?   He is addicted to his own publicity.  If he actually had a secret, it would have been tweeted already. Did Spicer really identify the "smoking gun" in this comic farce as being tweets from Trump claiming that he had been bugged by Obama? How are these people keeping straight faces?

Growing up, I used to hate two things.  Well, that is not exactly true.  I didn't like two things.  Hate was a swear word in our house.  I was not allowed to use that word.   That tells you a lot about my parents and I think was a huge influence on my life.  I was never allowed to use that word so even typing it is difficult for me.  I am glad I grew up in a household where hate didn't exist. So, okay, there were two things growing up that I intensely disliked.  One of them was borscht and the other was turnips.  What made things worse that both of these were considered delicacies by my parents and were served often.   Every time, they were served, I would decline, reminding my parents that I didn't like them.  My dad would say the same thing every time, "taste with your mouth and not your eyes."  I insisted I had tried them many times and legitimately didn't like them.  The truth was that he was right.  I had...