First insight: I need to invest in a cookbook.

Carrot sandwiches, though oddly tasty, don’t make for a nutritious lunch.

I’ve been thinking about whether to rent out my condo or sell it; I worry about the hassle of having to deal with a bad tenant, but real estate is probably a better investment than the stock market. At least in Montreal.

I was leaning very much towards holding on to it, and then I saw this.

I’ve been completely addicted to American political news since the beginning of the summer.

So many factors are converging to make this irresistibly addictive. The diverse cast of characters, the incredibly high stakes, the non-stop twists, from Palin’s Bristol bomb to the “suspension” of the McCain campaign last week. Then it occurred to me a couple of days ago: I’m actually following a reality show. It maybe be reality, not a show, but it doesn’t make it any less voyeuristic and trashy.

I’m totally mixing cosmopolitans and popping corn for Thursday’s VP debate.

Sarah Palin during her recent interview with Katie Couric:

” . . . where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh — it’s got to be all about job creation too. Shoring up our economy, and putting it back on the right track. So healthcare reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade, we’ve got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, um, scary thing, but 1 in 5 jobs being created in the trade sector today. We’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.”

Via the L.A. Times.

Melikes this site that will give riding-specific advice to any Canadian regarding which candidate to vote for to ensure the Tories don’t win a majority and the environment doesn’t lose out.

About a month ago, Jonathan came home with a video about how badly the animals we eat are treated. There was no point in making myself sick watching it, I felt, if I was certain I wouldn’t consider taking action as a result. The logic was: I already know these animals suffer horribly, so I won’t be learning much. If watching it won’t change my behavior, then the sole result of watching will be to make me feel bad, which isn’t helpful to anyone. So I refused to watch it.

Oddly enough, I couldn’t put it out of my mind afterwards. Fair enough, I know about the mistreatment, the knowledge is already there, so the video wouldn’t make a difference in my behavior. But why isn’t the knowledge itself making a difference?

I started examining my reasons for discarding vegetarianism outright. Mostly, I like to train and need to keep my energy up. I find it easy to eat a protein-rich diet by including meat. I worry about missing nutrients. A little summary research easily dispelled these worries.

Also, when shopping for the new condo, I had a few arguments with my mother, baby-boomer with a vengeance, where she attacked my decision to live in the city so close to neighbors. I defended it on the ecological grounds that it would be untenable for everyone to live the suburban bungalow life, where a relatively large swath of land is taken up by relatively few people, and a car is required just to reach a decent video store. But meanwhile, I couldn’t escape the conclusion that a similar argument can be made against meat-eating. That is, since many more resources are used to produce 1000 calories of meat than of grain, it’s untenable for everyone to eat meat daily.

But most importantly, the more I thought about all this, the more bacon tasted like dead pig, and eggs like the forced output of unhappy, half-mad hens. And then fate dealt my inner carnivore a final blow by dropping me in Scotland and Sweden for two weeks, two weeks of non-stop meatballs, steak pies and huge slabs o’ deer. As tasty as steak pie is (and God knows, it is), my very cells were screaming for arugula by the time I reached Trudeau.

So here I am, out of arguments against being a vegetarian. There’s no question that it’s better ecologically and ethically. It’s also better for me, and being already very focused on what I eat, I should be able to easily make the small necessary adjustments to ensure I get all the nutrients I need, even to support serious fitness training. And finally, I’m kind of sick of the taste of meat right now anyway.

So I’m embarking on a little experiment, giving vegetarianism a trial run. I will eat a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet for 100 days starting October 1st. It won’t be anal no-meat-must-touch-my-food vegetarianism, but rather loose pick-the-pepperoni-off-the-pizza vegetarianism. I might not have the thanksgiving turkey, but I’ll have the stuffing.

Another ground rule: no preaching. This post isn’t an attack on meat-eaters or bungalow-dwellers, but simply a clarification of my position. I expect my loved ones to respect this decision, and in my turn I won’t preach or moralize.

100 days should be long enough to feel the effects of the change in my lifestyle and habits as much as on my body, for better or worse. It’s long enough to find it challenging, and to work through the challenges. And maybe it’s even long enough to make a tiny difference.

Today, I became the proud owner of my second condo. We move into it Saturday.

Which means I have a nice condo for rent in the Village, if anyone is interested.

I’d also be interested in any advice/tips anyone would have about the short-term renting out of furnished apartments, and agencies who manage that sort of thing in Montreal.

Two weeks ago, upon arriving in Stockholm, I went for a walk, and within a very short time smelled something I hadn’t in a long time… The smell of Lepage, the glue our teachers insisted we use in primary school. It brought back memories, not of grade school, but of waiting for the bus in Sweden, when I lived there nine years ago.

Immediately, I remembered that in Sweden, you always smell the bus coming. Quickly, I turned around and sure enough, there was one of Stockholm’s fine, environment-friendly etanolbuss. I thought to myself, why is it that even small towns like Lund (where I lived) had these nine years ago, and we’re just talking about it?

Then, walking to work today, I smelled Lepage glue. Could it be? I asked, right before I saw written on a Montreal bus across the street, “Cet autobus roule au biodiesel”. How cool is that.

So, Montrealers, next time you think you smell Lepage glue, look out for the bus.

From a May article in the Anchorage Daily News:

The State of Alaska will sue to challenge the recent listing of polar bears as a threatened species, Gov. Sarah Palin said Wednesday.

She and other Alaska elected officials fear a listing will cripple oil and gas development in prime polar bear habitat off the state’s northern and northwestern coasts. (…)

Climate models that predict continued loss of sea ice, the main habitat of polar bears, during summers are unreliable, Palin said.

You know that upcoming trip to Scotland I was talking about in my last post? It was with Zoom, the airline that went bankrupt yesterday.

What I didn’t say in my last post, is that we also have tickets (with another airline), going from Scotland to Sweden, paid and non-refundable. Accommodation and train passes in Sweden, paid and non-refundable. So not only do we lose our tickets to Scotland, but unless we buy another pair of tickets to Scotland at this late (and therefore expensive) hour, we lose the rest of the trip as well.

It’s okay, I said, I have a free ticket with Air Canada, I said. A quick call to Air Canada allowed me to find out that my free ticket would cost me over 600$ in of fuel surcharges and other fees. Jonathan, who had fewer points, would have to pay 1100$ for his reward ticket.

Zoom executives said they were “desperately sorry” for the inconvenience.

Last night I tossed and turned, desperately sorry that Jonathan was going to miss his best friend’s wedding, and miss seeing the family he hasn’t seen in a year, while he wrote our miserable apologies to his parents and the fiancés. It was a miserable night and morning as we scrambled and racked our brains for a way we could afford a new pair of tickets, but kept finding we just couldn’t.

This morning, however, I found out that American Express will be refunding all card members who booked Zoom tickets and now cannot use them, even if they aren’t stranded, even if they don’t have the AmEx travel insurance, even if AmEx never recoups the expense from Zoom in their turn. I called and spoke to several CSRs, including managers, to ask over and over again if they were SURE we would be refunded, and had it spelled out to me in 14 different ways that we would be.

AmEx, je t’aime.

And so it looks like I have to finish my dress after all.