stupid bank trick!

This figures... knowing our banks. This morning before I went out to run some errands I checked on my balance in my savings acct only to find a $2.50 fee. Fee? What fee? This is a savings account. Damned if I could figure it out so I decided while out in the same area as my bank running errands I'll drop into the bank and ask what it is.

You're not going to believe this one...... I was setting up paypal and if you've ever set it up you'll know that they deposit two small amounts into your bank account. In my case one was .09 cents and another was .14 cents. Now, to 'validate' your bank account with paypal you then go to your paypal account and withdraw those two bitty amounts and give it back to them. That verifies the bank account is yours and validates your paypal account.

I was charged $1.25 for each withdrawl!!!!!!! uh huh..... $2.50 cents to what my bank considers a withdrawl of a grand total of .25 cents! My bank is C.I.B.C. And I got a great teller today and he managed to get them to credit my account the $2.50 so I'm glad about that but geezzzzzzzz how many other people has this happened to that they got the $2.50 from???

Makes one go hmmmmmmmm

And you wonder why our banks putting up quarterly earnings like they do??????? lol

Dr's....

Well... today I fired my family doctor. That is if calling him a f'in as*ho*e qualify's as firing him. I went to see him today about these headaches, they are at the point of unbearable. I had one on the weekend lasted over 24 hrs. I have never asked this man for pain meds. Never. Matter of fact I did two rounds of cancer with no medication for pain. I have a very high tolerance for pain and a low tolerance for medications. I have more medication allergies than you can shake a stick at causing everything from throwing up to hives to my throat closing rush into the emerg kinds of allergies. I know what I can take and what I can't and I won't try new pills unless there is absolutely no other alternative. The one painkiller I can take is demoral. Morphine doesn't work on me, I'm severely allergic to codeine so that leaves a lot of drugs out. The only time I've used painkillers is after jaw surgery and after heart surgery. Both times it was given through IV and with the jaw surgery I was given a prescription for it for home as well. I took it for less than a week at home. For heart I took it only in hospital and only for a day or two through IV.

So, I asked this clown for a new prescription of demoral. I have the old ones but figure they are no good by now. I saw him just a couple of weeks back about my headaches and prior to that too so this isn't something new to him. He tells me "I don't prescribe demoral", I said "what?", he says "I don't prescribe demoral" "I don't like it". I said "Well, it's the only damn painkiller that works for me and that I'm not allergic to". I asked him what is so wrong with it that he won't prescribe it. He tells me "the side effects". I said "What side effects? This is only of the few medications I can take without side effects that send me to emerg!".

He says.... I'd rather you try massage therapy or accupunture and get an x-ray on your neck to see if it's your arthritis. I said "fine.... I'll get the x-ray but what the hell do I do about the pain?" And... neither one of the 'therapy's you choose is covered under OHIP. How do I pay for it?

He kept saying he didn't like prescribing demoral and wanted to give me percocets... I can't take them, they make me throw up major.. so he suggests oxycontin or whatever the hell it is..... told him same shit and both of those drugs are very addictive. So he suggests something with codeine.... I looked at him like he was nuts and told him I'm allergic to it and it is right there on my chart.... he was really pissing me off......... finally I told him I could understand if he knew I abused pain meds but since i've never asked him for them he knows I don't. But since my cardiologist will give me demoral through IV in the hospital and after other surgeries too it's the one damn thing that obviously works and doesn't cause me side effects. Again he tells me he doesn't prescribe it because he doesn't like the pill....... that's when I blew and called him a choice name or two and exited.

Got home and called my pharmacist and found out the demoral I have from the jaw surgery is still good so my family doc can screw himself and I'll get a prescription from another doc for it and find a new family doctor. good... give me something I'm allergic too...... asshole.

snow.... grrrrrr

This is what I think of snow...... look at the pic closely. The bee's tongue is sticking out!! I shot this pic last summer at the Music Garden down on the Lakeshore.

It was really nice when I went out but I was surprised at how deep the snow was in places and there was still snow on the sidewalks in places but none that I couldn't push on through thankfully. The sun was nice and bright and had melted a lot of it on the sidewalks.

I dropped off the load of Avon and then me and the person with me went over to the World's Biggest Book Store. She wanted to pick up puzzle books and I wanted nothing. I used to love that store when it first opened. They had cheap programs for the computer and a great computer book section too but they got rid of all of the puter accessories and moved the books to another section. They never have computer books on sale any more either. It's like when a new version of a book comes out they must either trash all the old ones or send them back to their publishers because you never see any older version books there. I did manage to find a decent cookbook though while waiting and it was $12.99 on sale but when I got to the cash they reduced it down to $6.94. Not bad. :-) I need another cookbook though like I need a hole in the head.

Next was off to the Food Basics to grab the chicken on special but once outside it suddenly got a lot colder and there was one hell of a wind coming up. I was laughing my ass off as I'm motoring along and the damn wind is at my back pushing me faster and faster. Finally got home and now I'm thawing out.

Tonight I'll do more of the Avon...... boring...... watch some of the Olympics and order some books online from a place in the states I order from. Works for me :-) Think I'll watch the Olympics with my laptop and check out a few things on the net too.

snow........ I don't like the stuff anymore

Snow... the beast that anyone in a mobility device of any kind has to fight several months of the year. And it's on the ground this morning in Toronto. Shouldn't complain because we had a beauty of a January but we are making up for it cold-wize in February. I have to go out today and we got a fair bit of snow overnight. I have a ton of Avon to deliver..... yeah, I'm an Avon lady. yuk yuk yuk :-) Been so for about 30 years now. And yup, I use the stuff too! My shipment came in Thursday and now I need to deliver a load of it over by Maple Leaf Gardens. Checked the sidewalks and they look like they are passable. I hope so, been stuck more times than I'd like to remember and these days you sit there stuck until finally.... 15 minutes or more later, someone, usually a woman for some reason, comes to the rescue and helps get you out of the snow.

Worst incident...... easy one..... I was going across St. James Avenue to go to the No Frills Store and there had been a good snow dump a couple of days prior to this. I need groceries just like everyone else does so I had to take the challenge. Off I go, off the ramp at the sidewalk at the intersection when I get about 20 feet out into the street and stop dead in my tracks!! Jammed in the snow. I sit there, cars coming from down St. James Ave. behind me are literally driving past me!!!! Then there's this white van.... comes to the intersection and stops and sits there... watching me. For about 20 minutes I'm sitting there stuck in the middle of the frikken intersection and all the while this bonehead in the van is sitting in the nice warmth of his van just watching. Do you think he'd get out and help??? nah..... that's too much effort. I thought for sure one or more of the cars going around me was going to clip my ass for sure. Finally this small Pakistani or Indian lady comes across the middle of the intersection and asks me what she can do to help. I asked her to just push a bit which I put my chair in reverse. She did and got me back onto the sidewalk. I was never so grateful and thanked her over and over. What a relief. At that point, I turned around and went home. Once home I called around and found someone that would pick me up a thing or two and then a couple of days later I finally got out and got the rest of my groceries.

I'd love to know who that ass was in the van.......... I'd run over his toes at a bare minimum. Schmuck.

oooooh I'm such a poor little wounded bird.....

lol yup.... Connie the misunderstanded and poor wounded little bird is on the rampage again. What is it with some people. Last night at a community dinner here is this cranky ass always with a scowl on her face woman bitching about someone she barely even knows. This person is nasty.... this person such and such... and on and on and on she goes. What is it with some people? I don't understand the need to do shit like this. And the strangest thing about this particular situation is she is doing it with someone she absolutely hated according to her just a month ago! lol Here they are... a couple of venomous gossips huddled at a community event ripping the crap out of someone neither of them knows and just a month before Connie was ripping the crap out of the woman she was huddle with last night...... freakin weird if you ask me. Two poor, pathetic, jealous people if you ask me.

My stir-fry Chicken & Veggies

hmmm after looking at the other blog it gave me the idea to stick a recipe or two of mine here as well. I have a recipe website but may as well toss them on here as well. Here is my chicken & veggie stir fry for lack of an original name.... lol

This recipe is easy and makes an excellent meal. It can also be altered and use beef and beef broth instead of the chicken if you like. I'm a chicken person but not everyone is.

Ingredients.....

2 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of cornstarch
1 pound of chicken cut into small, thin strips
1 full head of broccoli florets cut up
1 medium to large sized red pepper cut in chunks (be sure to remove the seeds)
2 medium to large sized onions cut in chunks
1 carrot sliced thinly
1 cup of cauliflower cut in small chunks
2 stalks of celery - slice down the middle and then slice in one inch pieces
a handful of green beans if you like
bean sprouts to sprinkle on top if you like
water chestnuts if you like
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1 can of Chicken broth or if you have your own chicken broth use the equivelent

Personally, I blanch my veggies first. Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Once boiling toss the veggies in for a couple of minutes per veggie. This does wonders for the broccoli especially. It greatly reduces the cooking time in the wok or pan and keeps the colour of the veggies as well. Producing a nice vibrant coloured meal.

1 - In a small bowl blend the soy sauce and cornstarch until it's smooth and then set it aside for later.

2 - In a wok or a very large pan, stir-fry the chicken in the small amount of oil. Once cooked through, (this won't take long) remove it from the pan with a slotted spoon and set it aside as well.

3 - Add the vegetables to the wok/pan and stir-fry until however tender you want them. I find by blanching my veggies first it takes less time. They stay crunchy but not hard this way.

4 - Once your veggies are cooked enough for you return the chicken to the pan and stir-fry for a few minutes more so everything is crunchy (but not too crunchy) and heated.

5 - Next, stir in the soy sauce/cornstarch mixture into the chicken broth and add it to the pan. Bring it to a boil.

6 - Cook, stirring it until the sauce is thickened. This will only take a couple of minutes.

7 - Serve either over white rice, noodles or simply on its own. I sometimes make fried rice with it.

With so many veggies in this be ready for leftovers as well since this makes quite a bit. You may want to use a bit less veggies if you don't want leftovers or are not feeding 4 - 6 people.

look what I found.......

Headache or no frikken headache I decided to bounce around the blogs a bit and discovered a terrific blog from another woman in Toronto. Check it out at http://mividaentoronto.blogspot.com/

arghhhhhhhhhh headache!!!

I woke up without a headache today...... an hour later though.... ugh, it's back. I'm getting bitchy thanks to these headaches and I'm really tired of them. I'm not a 'headache' kind of person. I got severe migranes when I was a kid in my teens for a few years but that was it. Then like most other people I'd get a slight headache once or twice a year. Last July though I got really ill, landed in the hospital for 10 days. It was some type of cross contamination from food from a restaurant. My heart was beating at 140, I was running a fever of 102 for 3 days, had chills and sweats and the headache..... holy crap the headache was like a nitro headache and maybe worse. I couldn't believe how bad it was. Every day, several times a day the nurses and docs came in to make sure it hadn't become menengitis which this kind of cross contamination can become. It didn't thank goodness but damn I was sick. It was a nasty illness and it can come back too. You can have relapses of it for no reason.

After that I would get the occasional headache but not a really bad one, just an annoying one when it would come. Then they started coming a bit more often, once a week... then more often, two or three a week but still not really bad headaches.... then they started to blossom. By before x-mas last year I was getting a really good headache once a week, a banger. Now it's progressed to a migrane type headache daily. Barely a day goes by when I don't have to turn out all the freakin lights, take the phone off the hook and lay down for a couple of hours and even that doesn't help much but it usually takes the edge off it.

It's weird. I'll get a headache suddenly, it will stick around for a while, disappear then come back hours later for no apparent reason. I can be sitting down relaxing and bang!!! Today I actually woke with no headache and it felt great but now it's back and running right down the back of my freakin head and down my neck. What the hell is going on? My family doc thinks it might be leftovers from the illness I had in July. I saw my cardiologist on Monday and told him about it and during my e.c.g. it was discovered I was tacacardic and he thinks it could be causing the headaches. I'm hoping he's right because he's put me on a new medication for my heart rate and it should slow it down. If he's right it should take care of the stupid headaches too. So, here's hoping I start to see a difference soon.

Just decided to post another pic this evening. This is of the City-TV building on Queen Street West in Toronto.... Unique for sure.

My Cardiologist is a Hero !!

I'll be damned. I just was checking out the news and low and behold there's my cardiologist! Seem's Michael has developed a new and very improved stent. According to the news it's been used 1200 times so far in Europe and yesterday he implanted it for the first time here in a woman patient. If I ever need another one (I have 5 drug eluting ones in already for crying out loud) I want one of these new fangled ones Michael created :-) I always knew he was a special person. Now he's gone and proved it.
Here's to all the lives you save Michael. We all appreciate it and appreciate having you for our doc. I met Michael Kutryk quite by accident. I had a heart attack Christmas morning in 2003. At 5:00 a.m. I called myself an ambulance and off I went. I was his "New Year's Eve" gift.. ha ha. He operated me on December 31st and has been stuck with me ever since. Check out the story about this new life saving stent he's developed: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=
Article&cid=1139957412956&call_pageid=970599119419
(your going to have to copy and paste this url together in your address bar.)

Putzing around...

Needed a break from the computer for a bit and about the only time I've been on is to work on a website or to go to a photography newsgroup I belong to. Decided to look around and found a terrific photography blog I'll be going back to soon. Decide to post another of my shots. Maybe I'll post photos more often. Anyway, I shot this one a few years back at Toronto City Hall.

All of the evidence is not in yet, but it appears that Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, may have slept with President George W. Bush.

I will send more details when they become available. All I have now is this photograph ...

yeah ok.... I couldn't resist this one.......

Friday......

I wasn't up 20 minutes before I was dealing with idiots again. I get a call from my property management office asking me if next Tues. or Wed. I can move 3 computers and the table they are all on 4 ft!!!! Yeah, me........ yeah..... move 3 computers, all hooked up and then hooked up to a hub as well so some idiot from Ameresco can view the window for refitting it. He may need to pop out a window so for some reason he needs 4 feet of space to do it in! Ummmm they just slide out folks!! This idiot from Ameresco knows it too. He then gets on the phone and I proceed to tell him that no, I can't pull a long table out that has 3 computers on it and unhook them all from the hub etc., because they only have electrical cords and such that are so long then pay for a technician to come in and redo it all.

Then the guy says to me "well maybe we can find another room to look at"!! You got to be kidding right? Another room? You mean they were just picking and choosing a room, any room, to check out the windows on? So they pick my office and request I move all the computer equipment for them? These people are f*cking nuts. It is the worst company I've ever dealt with. If I had all the money in the world I wouldn't give them a red cent to set foot on my development and touch a thing. They do everything ass backwards and have attitudes like you wouldn't believe. Hollier than thou attitudes.

So now he is going to look for 'another room' he can check the windows out on. There are so many windows in here....... the building is 30 stories....... 711 units in all and they have to pick my office and ask me to move all the computer equipment when there is an entire wing of this building on the main floor that has identical windows that is empty!!! A medical clinic was in there for 25 years or more and they just vacated the space. Go there you freakin idiot!!!

I'm losing my mind, or maybe it's just everyone else...

It's been another one of those weeks. Seems to be typical for me. Months ago I signed up to be present at a seminar for C.I.R.A. (Canadian Internet Registration Authority) The governing body of .ca domains. I'm a member and was extended an invitation. It was a meeting/seminar on governance reforms and members needed to vote on corporate governance reforms. Yeah I know, dry stuff.... however I'm interested. It was an opportunity to mingle with people with the same views and interests. There was networking before and after the meeting, a banquet and everyone that attended got a 128 MB memory key. It would have been a nice time out for me doing something I'm interested in.

Well..... would have are the opperative words. Thanks to our wonderful disabled transit system Wheeltrans I didn't get there. These idiots couldn't get me a ride there, only one back. And they wonder why I don't use their service much! I'm in the downtown core, where I was going was the downtown core and they couldn't get me a ride there. This is nothing unusual, I've had to cancel cardiologist appts thanks to their useless system. If it was summer or spring or even a nice day out then I could have got myself over there but it would take me about 35-40 minutes and it was just above freezing and freezing rain on and off. I'm not putting myself in the hospital for this. Wouldn't you know the next day was 46 F and dry. grrrrr

The next day, yesterday was blown too. I had a meeting at noon and by 12:30 they hadn't shown yet. Turns out they couldn't make it at all...... so it's rebooked for today at noon. whooppee..........