Details for this year are as follows:

WHAT: Barbeque -- fun, friends and food, b.y.o.b., b.y.o.c. (Bring your own chair, if possible - we have seating for about 10-15... but are expecting far more than that); also if you want anything special to barbecue... we'll have burgers and sausages, but if you don't eat meat please bring your own food to grill, or let us know in advance...

WHEN: JULY 25, 2009; Arrive around 2:30/3:00 pm, food to be served around 4:30/5:00pm

WHY: Because we want to!

HOW TO GET THERE:
from the SouthWest: take Danforth Avenue until it merges with Kingston Road. Follow Kingston Road to Gradwell Drive (3rd street on the right past
Brimley).

from the East: Follow Kingston Road to Gradwell Drive, 2nd street on the left past St. Clair Avenue East

from the NorthWest: Take the 401 to the Brimley Road exit, go south on Brimley to Kingston Road, turn left (east) on Kingston, third street on the right (turn right at the KFC)

from the NorthEast: Take any major east/west road (Sheppard, Finch, Steeles, Ellesmere, Lawrence, Eglinton) West to Brimley Road, go south on Brimley to Kingston Road, turn left (east) on Kingston, third street on the right (turn right at the KFC)

by TTC: from the west: go to Warden Station, take the 102 Markham Road or 9 Bellamy bus (102 is way more frequent... but you might get lucky timing-wise...) get off the bus at St. Clair Avenue East and Kingston Road (just look for the big Canadian Tire on the right), go through the Canadian Tire parking lot, cross Kingston Road, walk back west to Gradwell Drive (turn left at the KFC), third house on the left

by TTC: from the east: bus to Markham Road, take 102 Markham Road bus to Kingston Road and St. Clair Avenue East (wait 'til the bus turns and you can see R.H. King and the CANADIAN TIRE.) Get off the bus, cross St. Clair Avenue East, go through the Canadian Tire parking lot, cross Kingston Road, walk back west to Gradwell Drive (turn left the KFC), third house on the left


LANDMARKS TO LOOK FOR IF YOU ARE LOST:
*R.H. King Academy (it's on St. Clair Avenue East, straight north of our house, so get to Kingston Road and you should be okay....)
*CANADIAN TIRE, at the intersection of St. Clair Avenue East and Kingston Road (across St. Clair Avenue East from R.H. King, across Kingston Road from Gradwell Drive)
*KFC, at the corner of Kingston Road and Gradwell Drive, you're almost there... third house back from the KFC and Kingston Road is ours... most likely we'll be in the backyard already, so just come on back...

Please RSVP so we know what supplies we will need...
email: skippyalto@hotmail.com
phone: 416-266-4368
MSN: skippyalto@hotmail.com

I spent the weekend up at my mother's helping with the shearing of her six alpacas. I spent all day yesterday in the barn helping to sort the fibre into its qualities: first (best quality to be spun into yarn), second (okay quality), thirds (really only good for felting and playing around with) and junk. It was fun. I went to a fibre sorting clinic with my mother last weekend, so I had a little bit of an idea what I was doing. It was a nice chance to get out of the city for a weekend and have some fun with my family... though staying in my stepsister's room was odd. Her bed is too small and too hard! My neck and back are killing me.

Alpacas look really funny after they've been sheared.

Pics are in my facebook album, which can be found here

All that fresh country air really knocked me out... I was asleep by 11 last night, and didn't get up until after 9 this morning.

The story of Schroedinger's cat (an epic poem)
May 7, 1982
Dear Cecil:

Cecil, you're my final hope
Of finding out the true Straight Dope

For I have been reading of Schroedinger's cat
But none of my cats are at all like that.

This unusual animal (so it is said)
Is simultaneously live and dead!

What I don't understand is just why he
Can't be one or other, unquestionably.

My future now hangs in between eigenstates.
In one I'm enlightened, the other I ain't.

If you understand, Cecil, then show me the way
And rescue my psyche from quantum decay.

But if this queer thing has perplexed even you,
Then I will and won't see you in Schroedinger's zoo.

— Randy F., Chicago


Cecil replies:

Schroedinger, Erwin! Professor of physics!
Wrote daring equations! Confounded his critics!

(Not bad, eh? Don't worry. This part of the verse
Starts off pretty good, but it gets a lot worse.)

Win saw that the theory that Newton'd invented
By Einstein's discov'ries had been badly dented.

What now? wailed his colleagues. Said Erwin, "Don't panic,
No grease monkey I, but a quantum mechanic.

Consider electrons. Now, these teeny articles
Are sometimes like waves, and then sometimes like particles.

If that's not confusing, the nuclear dance
Of electrons and suchlike is governed by chance!

No sweat, though--my theory permits us to judge
Where some of 'em is and the rest of 'em was."

Not everyone bought this. It threatened to wreck
The comforting linkage of cause and effect.

E'en Einstein had doubts, and so Schroedinger tried
To tell him what quantum mechanics implied.

Said Win to Al, "Brother, suppose we've a cat,
And inside a tube we have put that cat at--

Along with a solitaire deck and some Fritos,
A bottle of Night Train, a couple mosquitoes

(Or something else rhyming) and, oh, if you got 'em,
One vial prussic acid, one decaying ottom

Or atom--whatever--but when it emits,
A trigger device blasts the vial into bits

Which snuffs our poor kitty. The odds of this crime
Are 50 to 50 per hour each time.

The cylinder's sealed. The hour's passed away. Is
Our pussy still purring--or pushing up daisies?

Now, you'd say the cat either lives or it don't
But quantum mechanics is stubborn and won't.

Statistically speaking, the cat (goes the joke),
Is half a cat breathing and half a cat croaked.

To some this may seem a ridiculous split,
But quantum mechanics must answer, "Tough shit.

We may not know much, but one thing's fo' sho':
There's things in the cosmos that we cannot know.

Shine light on electrons--you'll cause them to swerve.
The act of observing disturbs the observed--

Which ruins your test. But then if there's no testing
To see if a particle's moving or resting

Why try to conjecture? Pure useless endeavor!
We know probability--certainty, never.'

The effect of this notion? I very much fear
'Twill make doubtful all things that were formerly clear.

Till soon the cat doctors will say in reports,
"We've just flipped a coin and we've learned he's a corpse."'

So saith Herr Erwin. Quoth Albert, "You're nuts.
God doesn't play dice with the universe, putz.

I'll prove it!" he said, and the Lord knows he tried--
In vain--until fin'ly he more or less died.

Win spoke at the funeral: "Listen, dear friends,
Sweet Al was my buddy. I must make amends.

Though he doubted my theory, I'll say of this saint:
Ten-to-one he's in heaven--but five bucks says he ain't."

(from: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/113/the-story-of-schroedingers-cat-an-epic-poem)

Brrrrrr... it is so cold today. I was just getting used to the lovely spring weather, and now it's cold and windy again in Toronto. To top it all off, the air conditioning seems to be on in the building full blast. Which is a stark contrast from yesterday when it wasn't working at all. Yesterday the office was so stiflingly hot. Grrr... the wonders of working in an older office building.

Ugh, work is driving me nuts right now. With my new position, there are times when I'm totally idle and have lots of time to do other things at work (like post to SparkPeople or my LiveJournal...) and then there are times when I'm totally swamped. I wish it were more even. Though, things are probably going to get busy soon... It's month end so all the managers will want to push their sales through, and I'm probably getting to take back part of my brand coordinator job that I lost in the restructuring last month. My former boss from the brand is so happy that she'll be getting me back soon. And I am too. Then I won't be bored and idle half the day!

I need to get my butt in gear and start walking in the morning before work again... but it's been chilly lately and I've not been sleeping well so I've had no energy to do anything. I just to work, go home and veg out in front of my computer.

I'm headed to New Jersey on Thursday and Friday for training for work... something I'm not really looking forward to, except for my free ferry pass to NYC! I'm going to meet up with a friend who I've known online for 8 years but have never met in person.

So how's everyone else's day?

I spent my Saturday at the Art Gallery of Ontario with my 8 year old cousin, teaching her about art and culture (my aunt's not really into all that stuff and my cousin is really taking a shine to art, so I offered to take her). We had a great day.  The long part of my day was picking up and dropping off my cousin... I had to take the subway all the way out to Kipling from Warden (the enitre BD subway line less one stop, which I live east of anyway and had to bus from... I had to do that twice, plus the subway and streetcar to and from Kipling/the AGO). When I dropped her off there was a storm starting... as I took the subway all the way back across the city from Etobicoke to Scarborough, the storm raged.  I got to my bus station and the power was out there. Got on my bus and there was a huge detour on it, due to power lines being down a few blocks from my house,  The power went out some time around 5:30 pm and didn't come back on until just after midnight.  I went to bed at 8:30 last night and slept until 8 this morning!  

www.261days.com



I think this is a great idea. So awesome. Way to go Suresh!

Just awesome!

So, I just found out that our supply room is not going to be adequately stocked anymore...

I have to order my own sticky notes, staples, pens, etc. instead of just walking to the supply room and grabbing what I need.

The Johari Window was invented by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in the 1950s as a model for mapping personality awareness. By describing yourself from a fixed list of adjectives, then asking your friends and colleagues to describe you from the same list, a grid of overlap and difference can be built up.


http://kevan.org/johari?name=Mary-Beth

you go there and pick 6 words that describe me...and I kinda, see if we picked the same ones.
(Do I see myself how you see me?)

Should be interesting. (If people partake)

Yesterday was a great day. I went shopping with sheighnah. She got her tax refund and needed new clothes... can you say shopping spree? We had a great time, and I ended up getting a few new outfits too. So nice to be wearing size 10! If my thighs were a little slimmer, I think I could fit an 8!

Then I went to a Stag and Doe party for my friend jaymatter who's getting married at the end of May, in OH. He's originally from Toronto, so it was nice to have a party up here for all his Toronto friends.

Today just feels like a loafing day... don't really want to do much of anything. My washing machine is broken so I may have to go to the laundromat today... and I have banking to do... looks like I've got errands to run with my aunt C as well... busy me!

1. Grab the closest book to you.
2. Turn to page 123.
3. Find the 5th sentence.
4. Post the sentence in your weblog along with these instructions.
5. Don't grab a 'cool' book, just the one closest to you.



Then from somewhere in the folds of her gown, the Lady produced a long narrow silver-handled brush and she commenced to brush Beauty's hair lovingly.


Going out soon. Shopping with Sheigh!

I've been in a bit of a funk lately, lots of stuff going on... So look at what sheighnah sent me at work to cheer me up.

( Prettiness back here )

I don't think I could be in more pain right now.

1. YOUR SPY NAME (middle name and current street name)
Suzanne Gradwell

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME (mother on your dad's side and your favorite candy)
Lillian Twix

3. YOUR RAP NAME (first initial of first name and first 3,4 or 5 letters of your last name):
M.Sow

4. YOUR GAMER TAG (a favorite color, a favorite animal)
Purple Bear

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (mother's name, and city you were born in:)
Carolyn Scarborough

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (first three letters of your last name, last three letters of mother's maiden name, first three letters of your pet's name)
Sow Son Bee

7. JEDI NAME (middle name spelled backwards, your mom's maiden name spelled backwards)
Ennazus Nospmoht

8. PORN STAR NAME (first pet's name, the street you grew up on):
BJ Markham

9. SUPERHERO NAME: ("The", your favorite color and the automobile your dad drives)
The Purple 929

10. YOUR ACTION HERO NAME (first name of the main character in the last film you watched, last food you ate)
Anna Dorito

Apparently the BBC reckons most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. [I'm just copying this bit, not vouching for it.] I'd be interested to hear which ones you've read and loved.

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.
2) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE.
3) Star (*) those you plan on reading.
4) Tally your total at the bottom.


( list of books back here... )

Not too bad... looks like I've got some reading to do...

( 100 Truths )
100. Post as 100 truths and tag 10 people → Not tagging; do if you want.

Just wanted to share with all my friends who live in the T-Dot what exactly is recyclable in Toronto now.