I just went outside because it’s garbage day for us, and the wind had blown our recycling all over (sorry, sirmonkeypants, but looks like the bin itself is gone). It is wicked out there. There’s an inch of ice covering everything, and the wind is whipping snow into your face so hard and so fast you can barely see.

I didn’t use to dislike winter — it is brutal to survive Ottawa winters if you don’t at least tolerate cold and snow. But today is really pushing the limit. Looks like we’re trapped inside!

Today on CBC they were talking about the Canadian Women’s Hockey team, and how they are blowing away the competition, and how some have suggested that perhaps they should back off and win by less of a margin. I’m not sure how I feel about that.

On one hand, when the US fielded its “dream team” in basketball in the 90s, no one suggested then that they dial it down a notch, and, say, only win by 20 points or so per game. It was just a given that they were the best and were going to walk away with the gold, and everyone else was playing for silver, and praying not to meet up with them at a critical point in the ladder. No one seems to think that the American dominance in this sport is something to be ashamed of.

But on the other hand, I saw on TV how women’s hockey in non-North American countries is such a fledgling sport, that the repeated crushings of their teams will prevent the development of women’s hockey into a real competition. Young girls are unlikely to get inspired to sign up for a sport where their country does not perform well, and the government is unlikely to make development of the sport a priority when Canada and the US will probably continue to dominate no matter what. Canada will never get valid competition until other countries start to do better — kind of a catch-22.

It’s to the point where the Olympic Committee is considering not having women’s hockey as an event in the 2010. I couldn’t think of too many other sports where women do not compete — just the decathalon (women do a pentathalon, I think) and baseball (women play softball). I think hockey is big enough with young girls in Canada that I’d like to see it become a respectable world-wide sport, and maybe having Canada help out with that by not crushing other teams is the way to go. I saw Hailey Wickenhouser (forgive my terrible spelling, I’m too lazy to look it up) suggesting that the way to fix the problem is to send Canada’s best players and coaches to other countries to grow the sport, and I like her idea — it’s Canada’s job to make sure it gets real competition in the future.

As the parent of two toddlers, I wish everything in the world had a drive-thru. It’s such a pain to get them out of their car seats, then chase after them inside somewhere, then get them re-dressed and back into the car — especially if you just need to run in and get one little thing. Today I had to hit the lab for some blood tests and I really wished I could just pull up the car and stick my arm out the window. And what I wouldn’t give for a drive-thru drugstore!

We don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day at our house at all, but I was reading in the paper on the weekend how it’s still really big with the grade school crowd — exchanging those little paper valentines with cheesy puns on them is still big business. It got me thinking about Valentine’s Day when I was in grade 4. My mom bought me a card set and I started by giving all the best ones to my friends, then I filled out some for most of the other kids in the class. In the end I had a card for everyone in the class except this one guy named Jerry, who was kind of an outcast. In retrospect I can see that he wasn’t mean in a bullying kind of way, just a tough kid from a rough neighbourhood who didn’t have much skill at making friends. We were all afraid of him anyway and I was happy enough to avoid the whole situation.

But the night before Valentine’s Day I had a change of heart, and I told my mom that I had left out one person from my class and needed her to get me another card. She insisted on going through the class list (sent home by the teacher for card-writing purposes) to find out who it was. I think she was curious, but it was a painful process for me, with me spending the whole time rolling my eyes saying, “Mom, I know who it is! Come on!” Anyway, after confirming the lone outcast was Jerry, she did go to the store to get me another card, which I think was pretty awesome of her.

The next day we handed out our valentines in a free-for-all and Jerry didn’t get very many, but for every one he did get, he called out a really loud “Thank you!” at the top of his lungs. When I dropped mine off he yelled, “Thank you Lynn!” and I blushed with embarrassment for being called out for associating with Jerry, but at the same time, I felt really really happy and proud of myself. These days I can still hear, “Thank you Lynn!” in my head and it makes me smile.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Jerry!

The toilet training is going great, but now we’re working on getting the Captain to poop in his potty. Today after he pooped in his pull-up, as part of my “Get To Know Your Body” strategy, I showed him the poo.

He bonded immediately. First he said, “Hi Poo!” then he turned to me and said, “He’s staying for a few weeks. Don’t throw him out.”

Uh-oh…backfire!

It turns out that the “PC Party” is the Progressive Canadian Party. It was formed by members of the Progressive Conservatives who didn’t want to be part of the Alliance takeover in 2003.

The gal running under its banner in our riding is actually one of the founders of the party, as well as the current party leader. Interesting! I would have been very interested in what she had to say if only I had known she existed.

Here is her site.

I have a new doctor! FameThrowa found her for me, by tirelessly hounding the doctors who work at her clinic until she found someone who couldn’t take it anymore. Thank you so much! I met with her this morning and she is rockin’ awesome. All is right with the world!

While I was there I heard the receptionist ask a lady if she had ever lived in Quebec. Only she pronounced it quite literally, like “Cue-beck,” something I’d never heard before. I used to say “Kwa-beck” when I was younger but now that I live in Ottawa I tend to say “Kay-beck” with a French flair.

And speaking of Quebec, I voted this morning and there was no Bloc candidate in my riding, so I’m not sure why they get “national party” status and the Green Party, who has a candidate in every riding, does not. But more surprising than the absence of a Bloc candidate was the presence of a “Marijuana Party” candidate (ha ha!), and a “PC Party” candidate, neither of which I’ve ever heard. It’s too late now for them to win my vote, but curious internet research beckons!

Those who know me are familiar with the fact that watching CSI makes me really, really angry. Now I have a new source of anger — Stephen King’s monthly column on the back page of Entertainment Weekly. I’ve never really respected his abilities as a writer, although I read many of his books in high school and enjoyed at least three of them. In general though, I find he’s quite the hack, with a fixed bag of tricks that he hauls out again and again, and the trait of stealing from himself is only getting worse as he ages.

Now he’s got this “Pop Culture King” column and it’s by far the worst part of my most beloved magazine. I don’t know why he gets street cred as a pop culture expert just because he’s a famous author, and certainly, his column sucks so bad as to leave me feeling enraged every time it shows up. His general tone is that of a patronizing father — in fact, he cutsily refers to himself often as “Your Uncle Steve” — and he always acts like he knows so much more than the rest of the world when it comes to TV, movies, and music. A typical column will feature him talking about how much he loves a movie, or a TV show, or a book, and how the rest of the world are either a) morons for not appreciating its glory, or b) morons for jumping on the bandwagon and loving something popular without really thinking about why it’s so good. Even this week, when he tried to support Veronica Mars — something I want the whole world to do — I got angry. It’s the way he wrings his hands in lament that the rest of the world just can’t appreciate genius like he can.

At first I used to just sigh and ignore his column, then I stopped reading it altogether. I crossed the line to actually getting angry at it when he wrote a column in defence of Michael Jackson — not that he doesn’t have the right to defend his friend, but the way he slammed the media for their coverage of his trial — the same media he wants to use to his own advantage — seemed so hypocritical. Since then I can’t seem to stop myself from reading his column but then I’m up late, being mad, just like when I used to catch a rerun of CSI too late at night.

Damn you, Uncle Steve, and your hours of lost sleep! You suck.

For the past week or so, I’ve been working on toilet training Captain Jelly Belly. It has been going really well but I’ve been very low pressure about it — once a day, at 9:30am, we sit on the potty with some potato chips as a lure, then I tell him stories until he pees, then he gets a candy.

Today I was having trouble with Gal Smiley so we missed our usual potty time, and by the time I got around to it, he’d already peed in his diaper. So we still sat on the potty and had chips, but he didn’t actually pee, so he didn’t get a candy. Then, it was like a huge light bulb went off in his head — pee = candy. After that, every time I turned around he insisted on sitting on the potty. He peed in it four times between 11am and 11:30am — overall today he peed in the potty seven times, plus three other times he tried and couldn’t quite produce. The kid must have a bladder the size of a basketball. No wonder he’s a Jelly Belly.

Needless to say, the potty training is going very well. But on the downside, seven candies = one hyper Captain.

I just got my renewal notice for Entertainment Weekly, and I can give a free 1-year subscription to someone else with my renewal. Anyone interested? Most likely you’ll be bugged with lots of junk mail from them at the end of the year, pushing you to renew, but a year of free weeklies is worth it, I think.