There are several grocery stores in Cornwall and, like everyone else, we have our favorite.  The one we got to most frequently is Food Basics, because it’s a lot less expensive than the other stores.  There are two FBs in town - one on Brookdale and one on Second - so there’s always an alternative in case we fancy a change.

But we do find that the Independent store on 9th has a nice, big freezer section, providing a much better selection of meal ideas.  And I must admit that we do often look for new and interesting meals because we tend to buy the same things every week to make the same 7 meals.

So, the pros and cons of each store?  Like I said, FB is cheap, it’s big and there are two of them.  We know the layout of the store and we know where to find everything.  The staff have always been friendly and we only occasionally find an error on the receipt.

The Independent store is even bigger.  Big freezer section, huge fruit and veg section, cooked chicken, a KFC-style meal area, a deli counter, pharmacy, a bank machine, a photo developer, a post office and more.  As I typed that last sentence, it struck me that the Independent really is an “everything” store.  But you pay for those services.

Anyway, the point of this post really was to highlight the differences between the two stores’ own brands.  For FB, it’s Master’s Choice and for the Independent, it’s President’s Choice.  These brands are always cheaper than the big name brands so that is normally the ones we go for. 

For quality and taste and quantity, I would chose FB’s Master’s Choice every time.

For example, for breakfast every morning, I like a bowl of Frosties.  Or Frosted Flakes, if you’re going for the real thing.  Master’s Choice does a big, family-sized box.  They cleverly split the cereal between two bags within the same box, which helps to preserve the freshness.  The cereal tastes just like the real thing and I can honestly say that I couldn’t tell the difference.

The Independent’s President’s Choice version of the same cereal offers the same prize box but in only one bag.  And it tastes real weird.  I don’t like it at all.  My stepdaughter likes Frosties too and she turned her nose up at it.

The same would apply to the Bran cereal that Hubby likes.  FB’s brand are great, he says, but the President’s Choice ones he’d rather go without.

So we tend to head to Food Basic on a weekly basis and to the Independent when we fancy getting a few frozen meals to fill the freezer.

Hubby and I have a son who was recently diagnosed as having Autism Spectrum Disorder.  J is 3 years old and is still not talking.  Obviously, we started on the road to a diagnosis and treatment quite a while ago, starting with J’s pediatrician.  He then referred us to a doctor at the Ottawa Children’s Treatment Centre. 

The doctor at OCTC and his colleague spent over an hour with us and with J.  We answered loads of questions about the things that J does well and the things he struggles with, as well as his many likes and his relatively few dislikes.  The diagnosis came back at the end of that session: Autism.

Hubby and I weren’t particularly surprised.  We’d read a lot about the disorder and we knew what the signs were.  J did not display them all, but he had a fair few.  For instance, J has a distinct lack of communication.  Not only is he not talking, but he also does not wave goodbye when one of us leaves.  He also tends towards repetative, unimaginative play, rather than constructive or structured play.  He loves toy cars and trains and pushed them along the floor or your arm or leg, but does not really play with anything else as it is meant to be played with.

But J is loving, tender, gentle, affectionate.  He loves to be outside, running and climbing.  He likes meeting new people and does not get stressed with a change of schedule.  Loud noises do not bother him, nor does bright light.  His sister drives him nuts, but now that she’s 10 months old, he’s definitely learning to play alongside her without pushing her away.

Anyway, the point of this post was to praise the system here in Ontario for the amazing support we’ve had as parents of a newly-diagnosed autistic child.  We’ve had 12 weeks, so far, of Speech Language Therapy, we’ve met with Social Workers and we’ll be meeting soon with an Occupational Therapist.  The Ontario government supports parents of kids “with disabilities” rather well, it seems, in that at-home therapy is avalable and paid for, there are tax benefits to be had and we could even receive a yearly sum for respite care. 

Not that we want any time away from our precious boy.  I must stress that J is an absolute pleasure to have around and I could never imagine wanting a break from him.

Then, one of the Social Workers called here and we went through the necessary forms over the phone.  She filled in all the details and simply sent them to us to sign.  She even included pre-printed labels to stick to the envelopes so that we didn’t need to guess where the forms were going.

The help that we’ve had so far has been unbelievable.  We feel like we have someone to turn to, someone who knows us and J and knows the system, well.

Today, we made the hour and a bit drive into Ottawa to do a bit of shopping.  The journey is pretty straightforward from Cornwall - up the 138 to the 417 West - and voila, you’re there.  I have my G1 license now (yup, at the ripe old age of 34), so I am allowed to drive on roads sign-posted at 80 or below.  So I drove the Route 138 bit and Hubby did the highway driving.

For our shopping spree, we chose the St-Laurent Centre because it’s closer and easier to get to than the larger and more exciting Rideau Centre.  If you ever get the chance, the Rideau Centre is a great mall and runs alongside the canal and is only a block or so away from the Parliament Building.  Stunning on a bright summer’s day.

I digress.

We arrived at the St-Laurent Centre with our tummies growling and headed directly for the food court.  They have a decent selection there, but we chose to eat our usual fair of burgers and fries courtesy of A&W. 

The food court was packed.  It is Saturday, afterall, and lunchtime.  There were people roaming around with trays, looking for a place to eat.  We never hang around at a table longer than we need to because we have two young children who are completely impatient and today was no different.  Immediately upon finishing, we started gathering our debris and dumping it on the tray. 

At this point, a woman appears who obviously works there.  She has a spray bottle in one hand and a rag in the other.  She coos at the kiddies, helps us gather our stuff and even offers to dump the tray for us.  Ah, how sweet.

But gathering up children and all the paraphenalia that goes along with them, like sippy cups, wipes, rusks for the baby, etc, is a tough and time-consuming job.  I lifted one of our bags to put it on the table to start filling it and this woman started spraying the table to clean it for the next customers to use.  She basically took over the table and left me standing there holding a baby, a bag, a bottle, and god knows what else.

Now, I do see myself as being a very reasonable person.  I don’t purposelly try to anger or frustate people and I don’t set out to be difficult. But I was not going to rushed off of this table.  I dumped my stuff back on the table and sat my son down again so that I could get his shoe back on.

That sure put an end to her wiping!

Like I said, I wasn’t trying to be difficult.  I could see that people were waiting for tables, but I found what she did to be rude.  She just needed to stand back for about 30 seconds and we’d have been on our way feeling a lot less ticked off.

I’m a married woman.  A happily married woman, in fact!  I love my husband and, obviously, I find him attractive.  My question to you is: can (or should) a happily married woman still find another man attractive?  And really, should this offend or upset her beloved husband?  The answer, I’m sure, is not straightforward and will differ from couple to couple.

For example, if I find some attractive, like a movie star or something, I expect Hubby to nod and just let me get on with my lusting.  But if he casually mentions that some starlet is sexy (usually because I asked him), I feel myself cringe and instantly feel like he’s done something wrong.  Now clearly this is completely unfair.  I do realize that and blame it entirely on a lack of confidence.  The obvious answer would be to never ask him about it again.  Duh.

Anyway, this post came about because I recently heard a Robbie Williams song on the radio while I was at work.  I think it Rock DJ.  I sang along and remembered fondly the time I saw him in concert at a club in Montreal.  He was phenomenal.  Absolutely amazing!  And so, so sexy.

I had a pic of Robbie on my desktop and thought he was just dreamy.  Thinking back to how he looked then, I can still remember how I thought he was the sexiest man alive.

Then I met hubby, of course, and he took Robbie’s place on my desktop.  But I still think about Robbie from time to time, when one of his song plays on the radio.  I’ll have to find out what he’s up to now.  We don’t live in England anymore and, although he was once popular over here in Canada, I haven’t heard of him recently.

I just checked out his website and there’s a “Meet Robbie” contest going on.  Hmmm…  :)

I bought the new Feist CD a little while ago and It’s amazing.  She has such a wonderful, soft voice and the songs are all catchy.  My favorite from her is definitely My Moon, My Man: 

Me?  I love it.  I’ve had very few problems with Wordpress and it installs like a charm.  Easy as pie, in fact.  I’ve heard about people having troubles with it and some swear by Wordpress alternatives, but I’ve used Wordpress before and I’ll use it again.

What is Wordpress?  It is the application that I am using to create this blog on my own webspace.  It is free and completely customizable.  And there are literally oodles of themes out there to choose from.  Find one you like, upload it to your space and then change the colors, images and layouts to suit your tastes.  I like to keep my themes simple and I felt that this design suited me to a T.  I changed everything to red, my favorite color, and added a beautiful picture of Marilyn Monroe (just because she’s pretty).  I tweaked the code here and there and now I’m pleased with how it looks.

The only trouble that I’ve experience with Wordpress was that an embed YouTube video could be viewed correctly in Internet Explorer but completely messed up the page in Mozilla.  But I am not sure whether that was an issue with a particular theme or whether that was Wordpress as a whole.

My next post will have an embedded video.  If the video stays, it’s because it works just fine in both browsers.  If you check back and there’s no video, well, there’s your answer.

… or maybe it’s just this theme. Grrr.

Yup, we live in Ontario in Canada.  In Cornwall, to be exact.  And today, hubby and I took the kiddies to McDonald’s for lunch, as we occasionally do.  We like going there because we feel like the food is tasty and not over-the-top expensive.  A meal there is cheaper than a meal at, say, Wendy’s, Harvey’s or KFC.  But I would say that, on the whole, we enjoy a meal at Wendy’s the best.  Hubby likes replacing his fries with the chilli (yuck) and we find the burgers more sustantial that McD’s.

Anyway, at around 1pm today, we parked outside the McDonald’s on Brookedale in Cornwall and went inside.  We ordered our usual, a few cheeseburgers and some fries and one drink (hubby and I share a drink).

(Actually, as I typed that last sentence, I realize how cheeky we were in just ordering one drink.  You see, hubby and I always share a drink when we get fast food because neither of us ever finish a whole one.  But this McDonald’s offer free refills.  So they probably watch hubby and I drink from the same cup.  Then I did something I have never done before:  I took advantage of the free refill and filled my cup before we left.  It hadn’t occured to me at the time, because we always share, but looking back, I can see the cheekiness of our actions.  I digress…)

One of the managers or supervisors or something at this particular McDonald’s never smiles.  No matter how many times we go in, no matter what time of day, and no matter whether we smile broadly at her.  Nothing.  She just frowns and I can’t understand it.  I also work with the public, as a cashier in a large store and I smile all the time.  And I mean that.  I smile at everyone and I say ‘hello’ and I ask if they help finding anything.  That’s my job and I do it well, I believe.

When I was about 18, I remember being snotty when I worked with the public.  I worked at KFC and at the airport in Montreal.  But I was 18!  I was immature and I thought that the world owed me something.  But I’m older now - 35 in November (yikes!) - and I know better than to treat people, especially paying customers, in that way.

This woman at McDonald’s looks to be in her 40’s.  She should know better.  And if she doesn’t, her boss should be offering extra training.  And if that doesn’t work, my empathy ends there.  As a paying customer myself, I don’t need to see that long face while I order.

Maybe we should start going to the one on Second Street instead.