I Love Manitoba Public Insurance!

First of all, thank G-d this is NOT my vehicle. It's a picture I found on Flickr, and the owner had very generously put it in a Creative Commons licence, which means I am free to use it. Important to know if you blog. I've been using my own pictures lately, since I have a lovely camera with an Internet connection in my pocket (also known as an iPhone). But I digress ...

I did, however, get rear-ended yesterday. I was sitting in traffic, minding my own business while waiting for a pedestrian corridor to clear. A maroon van was behind me, also minding its own business.

Next thing we both know, some guy in a green Villager bashes into the back of the maroon van, probably at a full 60 clicks. She bashes into me. Luckily I have a habit of leaving a decent distance between myself and the car in front of me, so I didn't hit anybody. I didn't see it coming so I had my foot on the brake, unfortunately. I doubt my van is actually damaged from that but it did mean my body took a nasty jolt.

I pulled off into a side street and stepped out to view the damage. To my van, luckily, not much - I have a nice imprint of her front license plate (and holes punched by the two bolts) in my back bumper, but it doesn't seem otherwise damaged. To my body, I'll find out. So far just a little stiff in the shoulders and neck, and I've had a few warning spasms from my back, but they've gone away each time.

The driver who hit both of us was out and walking around right after, making no bones about his responsibility. Not that he could have, of course, there were witnesses. The front of his vehicle had crumpled as it should, and a nasty green flood flowed out of his radiator. His airbag had deployed, but he seemed OK, if a bit dazed. The driver in the middle, poor soul, was in shock, of course, and her vehicle was pretty bashed up in the back. The front looked OK to my untrained eye, consistent with the lack of serious damage to my vehicle.

The cops were there pretty quickly, we exchanged information and I went on my way to collect Shira from day camp. The other two vehicles undoubtedly had to be towed.

So why do I love Manitoba Public Insurance? I phoned them today and gave them all the information I had (turned out mine was the first report). We opened a possible injury claim for me. If I do turn out to have whiplash, I just need to go to my family doctor and if she says I need a physiotherapist or a chiropractor, the person can just bill MPI directly. I do need to take the vehicle in to be assessed because it was a three-car accident, even though I have no intention of having any cosmetic repairs done to a ten-year-old vehicle. If  the adjuster says it needs a new bumper or anything else, though, MPI will cover it fully. The person in the call centre gave me a number to call if I have any questions, and was generally thoughtful and empathetic and understanding of the whole trauma. And the best part? I don't have to deal with the other drivers or their insurance - since we are all covered by the same institution, his penalties and our compensation are separate from each other.

Public insurance rocks - because the risk is spread out over so many people and they do not have a mandate to make a profit, not only do they not need to nickel and dime me, but the insurance for the YEAR for my 16 y/o driver is $60, unless he gives them a reason to do otherwise.

Manitoba is a pretty darned good place to live!

Blogging the Failures

I'm sad right now. I've just had to throw out a large quantity of (formerly) beautiful, very expensive organic almonds, entirely due to my own procrastination and stupidity. In short, I put them to soak for too long, with too little salt water, and in too hot a kitchen, and they got moldy. I hope I can get more - they've been hard to find lately. G-d knows they aren't local around here, but they are an important part of our diet.

So now I am wondering about what the "big kids", the "real" food bloggers do when they have a culinary disaster. I don't remember ever seeing anybody blog about something that went badly wrong and they had to dump it. It's certainly not the most attractive picture I've ever taken, but it is part of the chronicle of my journey to eating real food and supporting my local economy (I did buy them from a small local store, not a big chain). Sometimes things go wrong, sometimes they go magically right, and we hope the latter will outweigh the former as time goes on and we become more skilled.

What do you think, have you ever seen a food blogger post a sad picture of their garbage can?? (Although I'm thinking I can salvage some small fraction of the almonds' value to the universe by transferring them to the compost ...).

New York, New York (Part Three)

Ah, Sunday. That was a lovely, busy day. Ari and I had a quick breakfast in the apartment and walked down to the Rockefeller Center, where Ari's Mecca resides - the Nintendo World Store. We had agreed to meet there with some of the most special, wonderful people in the world - members of my March96 mailing list. I have mentioned them before on this blog, but I still cry when I read this piece I put together for a Squidoo Thanksgiving magazine. If you don't have time to read that article, suffice it to know that I have been a member of this mailing list since July 1995, when I was pregnant with my oldest, now 16. We have been through many trials and tribulations, and we try to get together as much as possible. If the Nintendo World Store was the highlight for Ari, seeing my March friends was the highlight for me. They are like sisters and brothers to me, and whenever we meet in person, we just pick up the thread as if our last meeting had been just the day before. Indeed, virtually, it probably was!

Our group included another March sibling (14 years old) and a March kid (16 years old). Enjoying the pleasure of having big kids, we dumped them all at the store and went off to enjoy our coffee and chat. This picture is actually of Ari playing Mario Kart with a random stranger he picked up in the store, but he soon connected with the other boys and we felt quite confident leaving them.

We eventually had to drag them out for lunch, under the solemn promise of returning later. Of course Ari had to pay a visit to the statue of Prometheus.  Note the gamer shirt. He kept it clean specifically for this day. This, my friends, is what a gamer looks like. We were able to satisfy some of his desire to buy the whole store and also got some nice gifts for his siblings. Saying good-bye to my friends was hard, but I know we will find a way to meet again sooner rather than later, despite the difficulties of modern travel. The day was completed with a lovely dinner with some old friends whom I had not seen in thirty years.

This morning we had some difficulty getting up, but we did drag ourselves down to the Empire State Building. Ari learned something about the myriad people who addressed us on the street, assuring us that we would be waiting for HOURS unless we bought a premium ticket from them. Amazingly, there was a very short line for tickets (and the kind person behind the glass gave Ari a child's ticket even though he admitted to being thirteen), a very reasonable lineup for the elevators and a respectable but not excessive crowd up on the 86th floor. We had fun identifying all the places we had seen from the cruise (we saw The Beast on its way back from the Statue of Liberty, and waved at our old friend down there). Central Park looked amazingly close from up there, but I think we are going to have to leave it for next time. 


On our way back north the other side of Broadway was the shady side of the street, so we found ourselves paying a visit to a distinguished lady I remember from my childhood. I don't, however, remember her wearing such decorations on her head.

Tomorrow we will be travelling a good part of the day, so I imagine you won't hear from me for a day or two after. Thanks for following our adventures in the Big Apple!

New York, New York, continued

Well, a few days have snuck up and gone by while I had lots of good intentions. I was actually planning to blog each day, but here it's Sunday already. Oh well.

Thursday morning I had a lovely breakfast with my friend Dale and her partner Rabbi Amy. It was wonderful to see them and it was a very nice walk from our VRBO to the area near Central Park where we met.

Later that day we went on the Circle Line, taking the three-hour tour around Manhattan. It was a bit long for Ari but quite informative and interesting. After all, how else can you find out how much various celebrities whose names I have already forgotten paid for their condos along the waterfront?

On the way back from the Circle Line we walked through Times Square, where Ari met Mario. We then went to the TCKTS booth and got 40% off tickets to one of Ari's favourite musicals!

Don't judge me - he's seen at least that bad language on the Internet (of which Trekkie Monster could tell you the purpose), and the puppet sex, while energetic, was sufficiently non-specific that I don't think he's going to emulate it for a while ... at least, I hope not.

In any case, it was very funny and enjoyable. Several of the actors were from the original Broadway cast, so that was fun to see. The others were very talented, especially the young woman playing Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut.

On Friday morning I gave Ari some down time with his computer while I walked up to Columbus Circle to spend some money at the Whole Paycheck, I mean Whole Foods in the basement of the Times Warner building. Very nice, but holy smoke.

 When I came back we walked back to the Circle Line pier and took The Beast - a speedboat painted a fierce green with teeth, that took us from 42nd Street to the Statue of Liberty in 15 minutes, complete with blasting music and periodic drenching. Given how hot it was, the latter was actually very pleasant. After a brief stop to take pictures of Lady Liberty, the pilot indulged in some figure eights and other wild boat behaviour. I normally get dreadfully sick on roller coasters, but the blast of sea air (and water) in my face kept me in pretty good condition. It was a lot of fun.


Walking back from the Circle Line, we went over a lovely pedestrian bridge over 12th Avenue. I also absolutely had to photograph the efficient way in which New Yorkers park cars.






We concluded Friday with a delightful visit from my friend Margo, who generously supplied us with candles, matches, wine and grape juice. Thanks, Margo!

On Saturday, the weather forecast was for 38C, or 100F. We had planned to walk to Central Park, but decided to stay inside and rest instead. Much reading was accomplished. Later in the afternoon Margo came back to visit again, as well as my childhood friend Eliyahu. We were definitely not bored.

I'm going to stop now, and tell you about the rest of our trip in another post. I hope everyone had a restful weekend and that all is well! We miss the rest of our family quite desperately, although it is lovely to spend time with Saba and Yosefa (who have somehow managed to elude my camera thus far).

New York, New York, It's a Wonderful Town (Day 1)

 Well, I still don't have any pictures from the Bar Mitzvah celebration, although I hope to acquire some SOON. In the meantime, some pictures from our Bar Mitzvah trip. This is a pretty awful picture (why is it so impossible to get a decent self-portrait from an iPhone camera, when it does so well on the other side?), but it shows us in the plane on our way to Toronto.

Since our seats were courtesy of Aeroplan, we paid for the privilege with a four-hour layover, which turned into an extra hour on the tarmac when the pilots were delayed coming in from Edmonton ... ah well. At least the air conditioning was working.

When we finally made it to La Guardia, we took a taxi to our VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner) on 49th Street, right near 9th Avenue. It's a nice, clean, old-fashioned apartment with hardworking air conditioning.

 

The only problem is that it is a fifth-floor walk-up, which is a little rough with suitcases. But hey, if I can swing a 30lb kettlebell, I can do this, right? As it turned out, Ari's and my little carry-on suitcases were no problem. We were struggling with my dad's and his partner's much heavier ones when a young man from one of the other apartments took pity on us, took one in each hand and waltzed up the stairs with them. I bet his kettlebells are much heavier than mine. There are kind people in NYC, and let nobody say otherwise.

 

Of course there was one great advantage to it, which was a pretty darned good view of the fireworks! Some tall buildings on the harbour front were in the way, but many of the sets went up high enough into the sky that we could see them. Very nice, especially considering that we missed the Canada Day fireworks due to Extreme Exhaustion.

More tomorrow, I hope ... having breakfast with an old friend first thing, then I hope we can get down to the Circle Line and spend some time on the water. Stay tuned!

So, where have I been?

My second son's Bar Mitzvah is in four days. Anybody who has experienced being the mother-of-the-Bar-Mitzvah knows where I have been.

The baking day was only one of the stressful moments, although it was lots of fun, too. Daily practice, buying clothes for everybody, paying invoices from the synagogue, the DJ, the photographer, the florist. Helping him write his speech. Invitations, RSVPs, keeping track of gifts so he can write his thank-yous next week. Family flying in from out of town, who need to be housed, fed and entertained.



All in all, lots of stuff. Celebrating a milestone like this is not trivial (or cheap).

But in the end, what it amounts to is this. Miracle Boy, who started life with so much fear and pain and hope, is now a gorgeous thirteen-year-old, eye to eye with me, smart and funny and healthy.

That is where I have been. Next week - pictures and stories!!

Spring Paleo Manitoba Supper

 

Yesterday I was at Petrasko Bros picking up some bedding plants, and of course I had to get a picture of this sign. It just shows how Manitobans feel about spring and summer, after six months of the white stuff on the ground. This year actually was pretty good, spring was early and we had some amazingly warm days in March and April. But now we have local asparagus (yes, I know it's June. We're in the NORTH here, people). We have local greenhouse tomatoes and cucumbers from Greenland Gardens. We are fortunate to have local mushrooms year-round from Loveday Mushroom Farms, and we currently also have local onions (of which unfortunately I don't know the provenance - but I trust Eatit.ca when they tell me something is Manitoba-grown). I've also been picking up local produce and organic baby veggie plants at the Red River General Store. A bit of a drive, but so worth it.

So, on to our dinner the other night. Sometimes we are fortunate to have pickerel or northern pike from the lakes of Northern Manitoba, but this was a vegetarian one, with free-run eggs from Nature's Farm in Steinbach. The garlic is not yet local, but I can't cook without garlic. Sorry. I'm not sure why I put the container of tomato sauce (homemade - that's another post) in the picture, maybe I was planning to use some, but in the end I didn't.

Paleo purists will complain about the bag of bagels in the background. All I can say is that my kids are not there yet. Baby steps.

Anyway, we had two main dishes - a mushroom fritatta, and of course, this time of year, we must have asparagus.The cooking oil of choice in paleo cooking is coconut oil, not local, alas. With global warming, though, who knows? Coconut palms at Portage and Main ...

These pictures are mostly just an excuse to show off my beautiful cast-iron pans, which I bought at Pollock's Hardware Co-op, a beautiful place in a beautiful city. Once you start cooking with cast iron, you will never want to go back to those nasty Teflon non-stick pans. Ditch that toxic cookware, people!

Anyway, you heat up your coconut oil, saute your onions and garlic until they are transparent but not brown, then add your mushrooms. Yum. Your kitchen smells good. You scramble up your eggs, add a little oregano, basil and thyme (very shortly those will be extremely local, from my garden!). Salt to taste. Add to your pan, turn down the heat, cover and let it cook merrily away. You may have to brown the top under the broiler, if your fritatta is too big to flip. I'm a wimp that way.

As mentioned, all meals this time of year must include asparagus, on pain of displeasing the Locavore Gods. So here's the braised asparagus dish that went with the fritatta. Start onions and garlic the same as before (although I think I may have used butter instead of coconut oil for this - anybody got a source for local organic butter??).

I think I added a little salt, as well. Fresh, local asparagus does not need any enhancements, in my humble opinion. The flavour of asparagus is what's called the fifth flavour (not sweet, salty, bitter or sour). I don't buy imported asparagus because I really don't think it can stand up to travel. So this time of year is especially precious to me.

So, here is the final product. I'm still learning about food photography as well as cooking and blogging, so bear with me. It was yummy, though.

I would love to see what you are cooking up this time of year!