Ben n' Jerry's Day Washout on Queen Street

> Hello Jennifer,
>
> Thank you for letting us know about a less than euphoric experience you
> had with one of our scoop shops. This information is very important in
> helping us to ensure our high quality standards.
>
> You should receive your coupon as soon as we read your comments (real
> people do look at all of this stuff!).
>
> Please do not hesitate to call us if you have any other questions. You can
> reach our Consumer Affairs department at (802)846-1500, 9am - 5pm EST.
>
> We hope that all your future experiences with our scoop shops are as
> euphoric as you anticipate and deserve!!
>
> Consumer Affairs
> Ben & Jerry's
>
> Here is the information we received from you:
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 4/29/08, you visited one of our scoop shops (238 Queen St W, Toronto)
> in Toronto, ON at around 12:00 PM.
>
> Comment:
> We showed up for Free Cone Day at the Queen St W Scoop Shop today -
> following directions from the Canadian Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shop locator -
> only to find a sign in the window indicating 'closed for the season - will
> reopen in the spring.'
>
> Actually, the location looked as if it had been closed for some time, and
> despite the cold weather, it really is spring already.
>
> Anyway, I would definitely call this a 'less than satisfactory' experience
> considering there were five of us inconvenienced... including my elderly
> father and my two very young children (3 yrs & 7 months). I don't even
> want to think about how hard it was to get everybody out of the house,
> walk to the subway station, pay for & take the subway downtown, walking
> from the subway station to the shop location - only to find it out of
> business.
>
> Not to mention how VERY disappointed my 3-year-old was. Ultimately, we
> went to a nearby convenience store to buy her a Drumstick ice cream cone,
> since I'd promised we were going downtown for ice cream.
>
> I definitely felt ripped off... as did the others who were with us (well,
> okay, maybe not the baby! :-))). Is there any chance of getting a free
> cone another day at another Toronto store, perhaps at the Beaches
> location? I cannot possibly get everybody out the door again today to go
> hiking down to the other end of the city. :-(
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>

There's a little PERSON in there...:-o

Yesterday, Gavriel Zev waved back when I said goodnight to him. Today, he was playing a "hello / bye-bye" game with Sara on the swings downtown. Wow... there really is a little person inside that drooly brain of his. How utterly astonishing. You give birth to this squishy NOTHING, and just a few months later, "ba ba ba ba" and non-stop giggling. And now waving.

Trip to the Science Centre

A few pictures from one of our MANY Pesach outings last week.

Tuesday: Riverdale Farm - with Daddy, Elisheva Chaya, Abigail, Sara,
Gavriel Zev, Naomi Rivka
Wednesday: Zoo - with Mommy, Elisheva Chaya, Gavriel Zev, Naomi Rivka
Thursday: Science Centre - with Ted, Yerachmiel Meir, Elisheva Chaya,
Gavriel Zev, Naomi Rivka = ALL of us! (YM took the bus & met us there)
Friday (yes, that's right: Friday): ROM - with Ted, Elisheva Chaya,
Gavriel Zev, Naomi Rivka ... on the subway, before they went on strike (YM
went with his class a few months ago, and didn't want to miss more school)

Still recuperating, but I thought these were cute... and it's been far too
long since I posted here. :-)))

<3 J

Supper!

~ topping off a day of CHOMETZ with... drumroll... Pizza
we got fries & salad; nothing homemade this time

Tomorrow, I may cook.

Beginning to look a lot like...

If a picture says 1000 words, here's a whole bunch of "words" about where we're holding... :-)

Two more loads of laundry to fold (and YM just announced this evening that he hadn't put his clothes in yet - argh!)... and then I sleep!  Sara's coming tomorrow to help out because Naomi has morphed almost overnight into the "terrible-twos" monster she totally was not when she was two.  She basically runs around all day shouting "I want to boodoo-budda on his heady!"  And if I don't get the baby out of the way right that second, she does indeed. 

 

<3 J

Hurrah!

Plane tix booked to Calgary for the kids in August. OK, that sentence made
no sense... must run & clean now.

With the new camera, here's my first tedious garden update of
> the year! This is the mini-perennial patch, just out front.
The coleus I have nurtured all winter long are going
> out there in the semi-shade when I have the leisure to dig up some
> turf...
>
Will try to post pictures of the new Square Foot Gardens soon SOON!

> G'nite!
>
> <3 J
>

Quick WS update...

Well, garden stuff is coming up all over - but NO PICTURES still!  :-(((

 

Of the wintersown stuff, let's see... (from memory)

~ Poppy (several types)

~ Cleome

~ One Sweet pea

~ Amaranthus - yay!

 

A few others may be starting now that we FINALLY have decent weather; I'll update tomorrow.

 

Indoors... my biggest sprouting success ever:  under-2-day Wonder Broccoli.  I planted it in a mushroom tray on Wednesday night; they were up before Shabbos.  Weird; it was just two mixed-up, mouse-nibbled packs left over from last year.  I was really just testing the seed, and now I have to totally thin it out!

 

Tomatoes continue to thrive in the Lee Valley "windowsill" starter (though not on a windowsill as those are covered in coleus at the moment).

 

Growing nicely:

~ Teddy bear sunflowers

~ Lemon bee balm

~ Butterfly bush

~ Petunias - getting really thick & bushy now!

~ Peppers - yumm...

~ Some other stuff, but with no pics and no energy to run downstairs, I'm not going to report on it all at the moment...

 

Got the Square Foot beds laid out!  Went out today and drove in nails to nail jute twine and mark the actual squares.  Looks so pretty... but totally unplanted and untrellised.  Hope to plant peas this week but who knows when we'll have time to build trellises.

 

Oh, and Pesach - oy.  Don't ask.

 

Nanny's in the hospital...  :-(

Not much to say about that.  It's rarely good news when you're 95.

 

<3 J

Let's support Sara!

She has a new job!  Maybe a couple!  Here's one of them:  St. John's Bakery!

Not kosher, but if that's not a necessity for you, schlep* over there to support her!!!

 

* (oooh... if you don't eat kosher, maybe you don't know what schlep is.  Here's the captioned version for the kosher-impaired:  "haul yourself" over there. :-))))

 

Feeling yucky tonight.  Better physically and I was going to sit down to write this article that's been hanging over my head but now I can't find the notepad I used to take notes at the inperson interview.  Aaaaargh.  Must be here somewhere but meanwhile.  AARGH!  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa... it's not just about the article but about the cause which I totally admire & support.  Waaaaaaaaah.  :-(((

 

Listening to Dr Laura on WJR from detroit is helping a bit. 

At least I'm not dealing with an extramarital affair.  :-)

"I was not... uhh... getting the attention that my personality... needs..."  Gack - what a loser this guy is.

Quick update... NEW COMPUTER!

It comes with a camera, but the camera - I'm now told - is backordered until April 14th.

With luck, it'll be here for Pesach.  The bad news is that (buyer's remorse) I'm checking reviews after the fact and apparently, this camera kind of sucks.

Drat, drat, drat.  It's 7mp, does movies etc, but the reviews mostly say the picture quality is WAY below that of a much lower mp camera.  :-(

 

Anyway, the migration is going incredibly well and we should be rid of the old computer today.  Feels like we're fleeing a sinking ship!

 

Oooh.  Speaking of rats, I saw a mouse two days ago (Sunday?).  In our house.  :-o

I turned on the stove and out it ran from somewhere in the kitchen, ducked into the living room.  We shook the cereal shelf and it ran out again, into the fireplace.  Ted went after it with a breakfast cereal box but it hasn't been seen since.  He has put out peanut-butter traps a couple of nights in a row, but no luck.

Oy, vey.  Between the moths and the mice and goodness knows what else... well, oy, vey.

 

Swimming lessons etc started again on Sunday.  Naomi had her first "by herself" dance class yesterday afternoon.  I hoped it would go well, with Tracy, the same instructor we had last time, but no, she cried and screamed and I waited outside the door metaphorically biting my knuckles the whole time.  She was still weeping when she came out, but is in a weird way kind of looking forward to next week.  She keeps asking me why she cried in class, and I said, "it was scary, but you were brave, and next week, we'll bring a rice cake for you for after class."  So she knows there WILL be a next week, and the separation WILL get easier.

 

Surprisingly, there was no problem with her "by herself" swim class.  Her instructor was the one we suspect is Bora's identical twin, Blerta (pronounced blairta?).  Despite the weird name - Ted's been mispronouncing it for months - she is really super-sweet and great with the 4 little ones in her class.  They have to stand on the table most of the time because the water's so deep, but Naomi did a great job of following instructions and working hard to impress the teacher.  I was really surprised.  The weather was mild so we walked to swim with her in the Ergo.  I didn't realize it was raining until we got outside but it was a gentle, welcome rain so I just pretended I was happy to slog along in it with her munching happily on my back.

 

Suppers!

 

Sunday - ordered-in Chinese!!!  Just us, and Elisheva was out helping "waitress" at Judy's house.

Monday - Ted-made salmon - he used maple syrup instead of the honey in his honey-mustard salmon.  Yummmmmmyyy!!!  I had it when we came back from swim.  Oh, with some delircious fingerling potatoes he found at the new Sobey's near us.

Tonight - umm... I dunno.  Using up some blintzes from the freezer, maybe?

 

Update on the new computer:  Keyboard feels a little mushy for my taste.  But everybody loves the new look & feel of Vista.  I hate having to give permission for every single thing.  Especially when you click a folder to open it, it says I don't have permission, and then (because I'm an administrator, dammit!) asks if I want to give permission, then takes a few minutes to actually give me the permission, then warns me when I go to create or change files in the folder... I mean, I'm an administrator.  If I ask to do something, do it!

 

Oooh... all settings copied over from the old computer now!  Yay!

 

Garden Update

 

Oy, went out back today now that there's less snow to check the ruins of the garden from last season.  Sigh... lots of work to do.  I blame it on the baby.  Never have a baby in the middle of harvest / garden clean-up season.  :-)))

Started tomatoes yesterday!  6 or 7 varieties, maybe more, and they're all neatly labelled in my new Lee Valley Self-Watering Seed Starter!!!

We also transferred the rather sad wilty looking petunias into their own pots to hopefully grow them big enough for the porch planters by the time the weather gets warm.  Naomi helped using the colourful new Lee Valley Hand Tools I bought for us to share.

 

The baby's up... must run!

 

<3 J