Lise's Ramblings

Freebies are hard to resist. On any given day, you may receive food samples at the grocery store, a promotional bookmark at a bookshop or a calendar from a salesperson. There’s nothing wrong with appreciating a little bonus loot. But, there should be meds for those individuals afflicted by swag frenzy.  A few of my fave freebies: a cozy Nortel fleece; a PEI potato stress ball; Island Abbey honey lozenges; and a Ragan.com pen. If you’ve ever worked a trade show or conference exhibit hall, then you know who I mean. You can’t miss them as they roam frantically from booth to booth hoarding as many freebies as they possibly can. I imagine their shoulders and hands must ache from lugging around bags stuffed full of pens, t-shirts, stress balls, lip balm, notebooks, chocolates, inflatables and scores of useless gadgets. (I’m pretty sure they’re the same people who hoard drink coasters from bars and stubby pencils from golf courses and libraries.) For the rest of us w...

Life is good when you live and work close to the beach. Here on Prince Edward Island, you’re never more than 15 to 20 minutes from the shore. It's funny how proximity to sand and water can shift your habits and attitudes. Need a few examples? Colleagues strap sea kayaks and paddle boards to their car roofs, because they never know when they may want to head straight from the office to the beach.  Women carry flip-flops in their purses, just in case the urge to kick off dress shoes proves to be too strong.   Pool noodles and sunscreen bottles roll around in the back of most mini-vans and SUVs.  People wear sunglasses as headbands and fashion accessories.  And the best part of all: the short travel time means you don’t need to wait for a perfect beach day to fall on a weekend . That's right, don't go home for dinner. If the sun comes out on a weekday afternoon, then simply pack a snack and head beachward. AWESOME! National Research Coun...

Earlier this week, I wrote about children beating the heat by mucking about in water. Well, the grown-up way to cool off is to reach for drinks. They’re called refreshments for a reason, folks. Sometimes merely the sounds associated with those drinks suffice to quench our thirst and refresh our state of mind. Go ahead, try it out... flip the tab on a can of ice tea, lemonade or pop (soda for my American readers) listen to those ice cubes crack in your water glass twist a cap off a cold beer poke a straw through the squeaky lid of your fruit smoothie, juice box or milkshake clink glass bottles as you reach into the ice-filled cooler pop a champagne cork Hey, why not up the chill factor by eliciting those refreshing sounds at the beach and in the company of friends and loved ones. AWESOME!   

  Guardian photo by Nathan Rochford http://npac.ca/?p=10803 Heat wave or not, kids don’t complain about the heat. No, they take matters into their own hands. Don’t believe me? How often have you seen a child: waddle out into the sea, a lake or a pool, often weeks before any grown ups dare to venture into the water; turn a garden hose on a sibling or a friend;  bite into popsicles (brain freeze be damned);   run and slide along a sheet of wet plastic (recall those Slip’n Slide toys from the 70s and 80s); or,  chase icy spouts of water at a local park’s splash pad? (Think of a playground made of spontaneous fountains, sprinklers and more.) Kids have a knack for beating the heat and finding their own way to chillax. AWESOME!

Two stand out for me: James Earl Jones and Hugh Jackman. If those guys narrated everything for me, then I might consider making the leap to e-books. Rich or sonorous voices... AWESOME! Whose voice gives you good chills or weakens your knees?

How odd is it that waves trigger such varied responses? Crashing water can cause you to feel everything from excitement and fear to peace and sheer relaxation. Those waves tend to get you riled up when you’re swimming. Yes, resistance is futile. You're going to splash about, jump and surrender to fits of uncontrollable laughter . At the opposite extreme, waves aren’t a welcome sight when accompanied by riptides and swells threatening to swamp your canoe. But, if you’re chilling on a larger boat or stretched out on a towel for a beach day , then the sound of lapping waves will make you relax and drift off to sleep. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh-WESOME!

My young friend Emma models her rainbow toes. Let's face it, feet aren't pretty. Sure, a toe ring or sexy sandals can add a little glam, but nothing works quite as well as a coat of nail polish. Whether you apply the polish at home or visit a salon for a pedi, painted toes are a game changer. Go ahead, jazz up those feet with subtle or bright colours, matte or sparkly polish, decals or maybe even rainbow toes. AWESOME!

In the 1970s, they sported Holly Hobbie, Snoopy, Barbie, Cookie Monster or G.I. Joe. Come the 1980s, first aid cabinets spilled over with Garfield, Strawberry Shortcake, The Smurfs, Transformers and neon colours. Now, parents stock up on Dora, Elmo, Disney Princesses, Nemo and Lightning McQueen. Who am I kidding? These aren't just for kids. I've purchased my share of Tigger and glow-in-the-dark Harry Potter Band-Aids. Today, thanks to a box of Mr. Men bandages R & C shipped to us, I can model Mr. Bump on my thumb. Even if you have plain bandages, you can add an element of silliness. This week, I needed blood work, so my nurse drew vials, then slapped a circular bandage on my arm. According to her, "Nobody should suffer a needle prick without a smile." I looked at my arm only to find she had pre-drawn a smiley face in red ink. AWESOME! [I re-traced the nurse's pen lines with a red Sharpie to make the face show up better for this photo.]

Every mating season, lightning bugs’ glowing abdomens mesmerize campers, naturalists, biologists and people who just happen to wander in the woods at the right time. These beetles, also known as fireflies and Lampyridae , create an unforgettable display of bioluminescence. [Yeah, big scientific word meaning a creature produces light through a chemical reaction that doesn’t result in heat.] http://www.lifesci.ucsb.edu/~biolum/chem/ If you haven’t already witnessed these eerie critters twinkling in the darkness, try to catch a firefly light show. Go deep into the woods where the tree canopy blocks out the moon’s light. Looking for another bioluminescence fix? I can also recommend New Zealand’s Waitomo Glowworm Caves. Years ago, Mike and I were fortunate to river raft through that limestone grotto to observe the glowworms (a.k.a. Arachnocampa luminosa ) in Kiwi-land. Now if I could only find an inexpensive and safe way to explore bioluminescent marine life. Until then, deep sea ...

Okay, so penmanship isn't a gender-neutral word, but the term encompasses more than mere handwriting. Whether someone writes Chinese characters, cursive script or block letters that tells you a little something about the person. Then there's the individual flair, which says so much more (e.g., loopiness, slanting this way or that, sloppy scribbles, coloured ink, a heart or a star to dot an i). It saddens me that young people today are unlikely to grow calluses on their middle finger, because apart from signing formal documents it is rare that millennials ever handle a pen or pencil. Instead of ink-stained digits, people are now plagued by carpal tunnel syndrome and strained eyes from composing long texts on computers and countless text messages on handheld devices. Today, many people consider penmanship old-fashioned, but I would argue―admittedly with a touch of nostalgia―that penmanship is personal, artistic and AWESOME .

Irony can be used to tremendous effect. Though all too often, people ( Alanis included), misuse the words ironic and irony. Sometimes the terms are mistaken for coincidence or comedy. Sure, irony can involve humour, but it can just as easily be tragic. Irony's use as a literary device dates back to Socrates or maybe even earlier, but T.S. Eliot was its master. Essentially, irony stems from contradictions in what is expressed and what is implied. Just last week, I found the following delicious example of irony: The definition for both pauciloquent (adjective) and pauciloquently (adverb) is being brief or using few words. With such a long root word and spellings that most people would find challenging, pauciloquent and pauciloquently are anything but simple or succinct. That's sweet irony. Could only be funnier if the definition of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious was brevity. AWESOME! Yes, I know it’s amusing that this blog post isn’t particularly brief. ;-)

As if ice cream isn’t tempting enough, places like Cows lure us in with the scent of fresh, handmade waffle cones. Not so good for the hips, but AWESOME for the spirits!

Not in an egotistical "everyone else should be like us" attitude and not in a "rioting after Stanley Cup finals" kind of way. I'm thinking more along the lines of when: your eyes well up during the singing of your national anthem you see people with maple leaf tattoos you watch Canada Day fireworks with family and friends you spot groups of people waving your national flag children are all decked out in red and white, right up to the face paint you feel a sense of pride in the scientific, sporting and artistic advances of your fellow citizens Years ago, the  “My name is Joe and I am Canadian” commercial was a runaway hit for Molson. Its popularity had nothing to do with beer and everything to do with patriotism. AWESOME! I hope everyone enjoyed Canada Day and I wish our neighbours, family and friends in the U.S. a happy July 4th.   I spotted this guy's car AFTER I posted this blog entry, but I figured it was worth supplementing my post.