A little Sin Tour never hurt anyone...

So, as I have been vowing to do for around 4 months now, I finally took a tour of Whitehorse's finest, the sex shops.

First up, near the elementary school & Salvation Army church, is the 'Adult Temptations' Adult Store. An interesting facet of this window display is that they will change the outfit the blonde plastic temptress is wearing quite often, every 2nd week or so.

And she is often wearing a plastic outfit too. The shop is small and smells overwhelmingly like plastic, maybe even burning plastic. The selection for silly outfits and ridiculous nylons is good, the lotions seem to be plentiful and they even had 'candy necklace' bras and thongs for cheaper than I have ever seen them down South, at $9.99 for the bras. There was also the original Rabbit vibe fore $74.99, which is what it usually retails for (range of $69.99+) and some cute shoes and some clearly hooker shoes. All in all, a fairly welcoming shop.

The location is bizarre. So near a school, and we wonder why children are corrupted at a young age, haha.

Next, we went to the mainstay shop, the very large Adult Warehouse. 'Now offering clubwear!' is often seen in their windows, and yes, the clubwear is actually pretty great looking, but here? In the middle of nowhere? Yeah...

This is truely a warehouse. There are racks and racks of expensive lace lingerie, bustiers (no steel or whalebone, which is illegal) just plastic boning. Many costumes and 'fun' attire, some leather and chain biker-babe stuff and the usual alarming array of insertable items.

Standout bizarre item? Penis conditioner, 'Now with more placenta!' for an umm..invigorating experience?? Ick!!

Lots of ridiculous Bachlorette-type stuff, including a frightening blue and pink assortment of teddy bears with furry penises. EW.

They also had a lot of DVD's for sale and/or rent. Dunno if I'd want to pick up a rental, as you never know who's paws have been feverishly handling it...

Interestingly, the candy necklace bras were $13.99, a whole $4 markup from Adult Temptations.

Fun to browse in though! Never know what you're going to find...

Location is nothing to brag about. Next to a pizza shop, Bocelli's.

Gardening?

My house, which is lovely, came with a not-so-lovely back yard. The front is nice, albeit with tons of gravel from the driveway still littering the lawn, but the back? Looks like someplace Chucky and Freddie and all those loveable horror stars would hang out, someplace near the compost container put the wrong way and the creepy ass structure with rusting railway spikes, metal bars and rusting rebar.

What to do, what to do?

Apparently much of the Yukon has yards like mine. Hideous things, with scraps of weeds struggling to survive amongst the clay dirt and gravel. My yard is approx. 70% gravel, 25% clay dirt, and 5% sand. No grass to really speak of...So people tend to give up, pack it with gravel and park boats in their yards, back or front. Tacky as hell.

So, I decided to focus on what I *can* change. I have raised planters, so my friends who are wonderful and competent gardeners came over to assist me with my yard renovations.

I planted lettuce, peppermint, potatoes and a strawberry plant! We fixed up the planters and even attempted a bit of gardening where the humongous propane tank lurks...yeah, try beautifying that!! We got the seed potatoes from Cdn. Tire, and a note to those starting seedlings-do NOT buy from Cdn Tire. Go to the big Sunflower place by the church on the Alaska Hwy. Cdn Tire seeds will not sprout.

As for the yard? Got some helpful ideas, like a bunch of cedar mulch covering everything, perhaps a small wishing well to hide the ugly drainage hole..maybe some camouflage fencing for the propane tank and plant camouflage for Chucky's playhouse of horror.

Just have to get rid of those spikes & rebar...eeeesh.

Sun is now going down after 11...and I am having a really tough time sleeping! Ack!

Ps. that change I was yearning for? Might be coming. Soon!!~

Snafu is a snafu

To celebrate May 2-4 and get hell out of our dreary grinding work-a-day existence, we went camping with friends to Snafu Lake, about 1-1.5hrs out of Whitehorse. The road is on the road to Atlin, so pretty bumpy and not paved once you get out there.

We arrived at about 3pm and my buddies had a good campfire going. My friends themselves looked incredibly rough though, I could tell the night before had been a 'rager, despite their assurances that it was pretty chill. We cruised around the campsite, visiting others, checking out the outhouse facilites (not bad), the lake still slushy with unmelted ice and snow.

We wandered out to the 'Green Valley' which unfortunately was littered with beer cans and bottles. Disgusting! Nice view though. My partner and I vowed to come back the next day and clean up the bottles, and we did. Good karma for us.

Once night fell (12am) and the campfire raged, things started getting pretty insane. There must have been at least 50 people there, at times I had no idea where anyone I actually knew was. Most of the campsite invaders were young 'tweenagers' about 17 or so, and drunk on their own sense of incredible stupidity.

I saw, what I charitably described to a friend, 'the ugliest person in the world' who was pockmarked and riddled with tweenybopper acne pustules. That wasn't it though, it was the lip-smacking, nonsensical chewing, staggering, blinking and weaving that did it for me. I was describing this young 'man' (yeah, didn't think it was a man, but whatev') and in the middle of my description he grabbed a raw hotdog and crammed it in his mouth, turned to my friend and I and started chewing messily, chunks of cheese-filled 'dog falling from his opened maw. It was hideous. Ugliest person ever.

Oh and I was also witness to this bit of frivolity around the campfire. A large, frat-boy type was sitting in a lawn chair, drunk. His drunk 'Iago' type friend (small, weaselly and drunk) snuck behind him and pulled the chair out from under the Moose. Moose went down with a pretty big crash and it was fucking hilarious! He got mad at Iago, and chased Iago away from the fire.

Iago was not to be ignored! He snuck back and started messing with Moose's chair again, causing Moose to leap up clumsily and throw the chair at Iago. He then chased Iago around a tree, where Iago found the machete. Iago grabbed the machete and menaced Moose with it.

I was like, oh JESUS. My quick-thinking friend, Meri, hopped up and snatched it from Iago's sneaky fingers. Phew. I was picturing machete wounds all 'round the fire...

And a possible Darwin award for those two? Only time will tell! I just couldn't believe the retarded male-posturing that went on, simulated fights, yelling, boorish behaviour. Well, I had a good time until I went to bed with my partner (back of our car) and some 'wit' decided to shine a flashlight into our window at 4am, saying they were the 'cops'. Yeah, scared the fuck out of me to sense this, I banged on the window, woke my partner up, and then we calmed down.

Heard some girl screaming 'don't do this, don't do this' to a guy, who was then yelling, 'go back to your fucking camp, Atlin or whatever'.// ???

Hm. Well, with youngsters the fun or violence never stops!

And I was sober the entire time, recovering from a hangover from the night before.

Candy Review!

On a whim, I picked up a bag of Campino's new gummy yogurt candies. They looked positively delicious and I don't even really like gummies that much, or, Campinos either.

They were pretty interesting, texture was a hearty little chew 'made with real yogurt' and the flavour was not as deep and lasting as a hard-boiled original. I wasn't a huge fan of the flavour, just felt it wasn't as quality as it could be, but my friend ate one and said it was quite similar to the boiled sweets, so...maybe just my tongue!

They were not cheap, $2.99 from Shoppers Drug Mart, but if you're in the mood for something interesting, go for it.

--Another review, lucky you!--

Vitamins+ were on sale, so I snatched up a Wildberries+Probiotics. Dark chocolate with berries and lactobifidus? Win-win!
As with the last Vitamins+, it was terribly stale and the chocolate was bloomed with a fine sheen of chalk. It tasted ok though, seems like this bar does better stale than the Vitamins+Minerals, milk chocolate with mojito flavouring.
They are still hawking it as a 'health product' and no, I am not stupid enough to believe that I should eat one per day...12g of your daily fats. Yikes.

They were on for $.99 at Shoppers Drug Mart, so not bad. Originally they are around $1.50 or so.

Camping?

People do that a lot out here. Up in Copper Ridge (govt. worker suburbia) each house is neatly accompanied by a camper/truck and trailer. Not only is it the American Dream to hitch up your trailer and drive to the Last Great Frontier, it is also a Canadian Dream, apparently. But you have to be living here already.

If you are younger, maybe not quite as stable as the govt. folks...you camp out by the lakes - Snafu, or maybe the Carcross desert. With shabby tents that leak water or sand, bottles of booze and a fire, what more could you want?

(I'm not much of a camping person, every time seems worse than the last...and no amount of alcohol can make me forget it!)

And I know someone (older and established) who just bought a brand-new truck and trailer to begin their Great Voyage. Hmmm must be comfortable with debt loads as well as camping!

Here's hoping this shit weather warms up to at least 'normal'. Jesus.

I like kids, but I don't think I could eat a whole one

In the dubious honour of mother's day yesterday, I would like to mention to others that Whitehorse is a very child-friendly place.

Almost too friendly, if the title statement may apply to you, as it might to myself. They are at art openings, crawling on the floor, protruding not yet born from bulging bellies, hoisted in their artist parent's arms while he is making a speech. The only other place I have seen more babies/pregnant women/strollers/toddlers was Spain, where they swarmed the streets and blocked narrow roads. They were worse than those dangerous mopeds that cut pedestrians off in front of hostels.

Curiously, Whitehorse is also very dog-friendly. Connection? Maybe. I am afraid of dogs but more afraid of babies.
And I think dogs are cuter even.

Coming from someone who, while at a nice brewpub/restaurant in Alaska, was almost seated near a child or baby (can't remember, all look the same). The hostess was edging us closer and I was edging away and then I said, I prefer to not sit near children. No prob! We trotted on over to a more appropriate adult table, near the beautiful stone fireplace. PHew.

But hey, some people might be seriously offended by that. Let them. I will not willingly go near a baby/child/toddler until they are old enough to speak like adults and not yard-apes or aliens (usually around age 12, which is ok).

I say, offended parents should really be more concerned about adults who love children. Love them so much they engage in inappropriate acts. Adults who do not like children will not cause them harm, simply put.

So, if you like babies, Whitehorse is a great place to raise them. If you don't like babies, Whitehorse can be annoying at times. There are ways to avoid them though, so no worries!

Klondyke Dental

Gouge, scrape, pick, hack, scrape, gouge...OUCH.

That's pretty much how my latest dental experience went. My poor poor gums are still swollen and aching from the 'adventure'. And jesus it was painful!

I went because I was concerned about my left molars and/ or jaw area which ached something fierce one afternoon. Booked a Dr's appt, then dentist. All clear at the Dr's, so I trotted off for a 2 hr torture session at the dentist to determine the cause. I had my teeth cleaned, which was probably the most pain I have ever had at a dentist that didn't include a root canal or intense deep fillings (both of which I have had). Holy fuck!

I swear to god, I looked up and saw blood reflected on the shiny instrument of evil. In my eye it looked like those hideous hook things on the cover of Hostel, covered in blood, MY blood. I was tasting tin and swallowing it.

I flinched, squirmed and battled with my tongue. I am also proud to say I didn't start crying until the hygienist pinched my tongue tendon.

My mouth filled with blood and when I chanced a glimpse at the bib thingy, it was spattered with it. The hygienist felt bad, I felt worse. My left molar is still aching and you know what? The dentist gave me an absolute clean bill of health--I had two types of X-rays done, teeth and one for my jaw. Hmm..now why is my jaw still aching...probably from having it open for 2 hours!

$308.00 and an advil later...

grumble.

Well, at least jaw arthritis isn't showing up and I don't have cavities.

Weakerthans!!!

" and hears the price of gas repeat his phrase...i hate winnipeg"

The Weakerthans are finishing up their Rolling Tundra Review tour with buds the Constantines. We attended the Yukon Art Gallery show last night, and they are performing at the bar Coasters tonight. I anticipate the bar show will be a lot livelier but hey, the sit-down crowd wasn't too shabby last night either. They were offering earplugs though. Kind of wussy...

The Constantines brought it hard and fast. They rocked from song to song, only pausing to break it up with a slow number after about 6-7 numbers. Highlight? When John K. Samson of the Weakerthans stepped in to take lead vocals for a song. It was amazing! Constantines were high energy, although not much stage presence and kind of danced like poorly-strung marionettes. Oh well, the music was more than pumped and brash, a great sound to start the work week.

A short intermission (everyone had a drink in their eager paws) and the Weakerthans stepped up without any prima donna waiting games. They curiously began with a song from their newest album, where I was expecting something from a bit later, to work the crowd up. Oh well.

Samson was in fine form, with his nasal-but-awesome voice. He had quite the backup, even had Rusty Matyas on keyboard, trumpet and some backup vocal and guitar. Rusty really looked like a rusty, he was wearing rust coloured flared pants circa 1970, a powder-blue button down that was too tight in the midsection and a bald spot. Very indie chic or maybe 'retro dad' chic.

Samson was drinking red wine throughout and there wasn't really any drunk rockstar moments. Highlight of the show? It would be hard to pick just one...I liked hearing from their new album, Reunion Tour but hearing the old stuff from Reconstruction Site, and others was awesome. Their lyrics are something to behold.

They crowd-pleased, Samson was the only one talking but definitely charismatic. Rusty and another band member duelled guitars briefly.

And..they brought the classics; Pamphleteer, A Plea from a cat named Vesper, One Great City...it was allll good!

What's your fav. Weakerthans song?

Mae Bachur Animal Shelter

Actually went, for the first time ever, the other day. A friend is pondering adopting a cat or kitten and I and my partner went along for the ride.

Small and crammed with animals, toys, cages, food bowls, climbing gyms, radios, towels, kitten beds, rags and chewy bones, the shelter is a very welcoming place. The lady at the front was very friendly and cheerful, and went out of her way to show us the cats that were available for adoption, spending a lot of time with one she felt was very special, 'Lemon' who was a tortoisehell cute fat cat. Lemon is pictured here.

She then took us to the main cat room where other cats were waiting for adoption. One cat, a rather sad looking and sour orange tabby, sat in a high-up cage looking down at us. Rusty had been abused by a former foster home, our guide told us.

Another cat named 'Leo' batted at my head from his cage to get my attention. He got it all right!

A small grey cat in a bottom cage had just been returned, as she was demonstrating stress behaviour and peed on her new owners bed on occasion. The owners, showing their rather callous nature, returned their new family member after 2 weeks looking for a 'replacement'. Sorry, the shelter doesn't do replacements. After all, if your child turned out to be a bed-wetting fire-starting psychopath, do you think you could turn it in for a better version?

Little grey was not happy. Hissing and cranky. Who could blame her? It's like being at an orphanage, the joy of being adopted by a loving family, and then getting returned back to the orphanage unceremoniously.

Oh, went back today and played with the kittens--they were licking my feet! Hahah. I think the one little fluffy grey and white kitten had a foot fetish.

Summer living on a patio...

We managed to hit the High Country's patio yesterday, bit chilly as they have a fry cook station that blocks the evening sun, but still nice. I swear, the weather lately has been nicer than it was when I arrived here in July.

Word has it that the Roadhouse Bar & Grill has a decent patio as well, although I've never been--kind of looks scuzzy from the outside, near the liquor store as well so has a tendency to attract the stumbling drunk bums around.

Coasters Bistro has a nice little patio, right in town. Small but cute.

And of course, my own house has a great little deck as well! Spent a lot of the weekend listening to a little red squirrel chatter and scream at birds.

Enjoy this warm weather, it rocks! (ugh. only thing to mar the perfection is a lingering head/tooth/jaw ache. what could be the cause of such misery? Maybe my ear infection came lurking back or a cavity is starting to make itself known. argh)

A handy way to avoid the 'bums sleeping on a parkbench in summer' syndrome

Take away the park benches!

On this glorious day, unusual for Whitehorse, I went wandering around the park nearest my place of work. I was pondering sitting down for a bit and reading a bit of my latest trash read, Dean Koontz 'Sole Survivor' and maybe eating the rest of my lunch. Basking in the sunshine, I wandered around and around Shipyards Park. There were no park benches in the sun near the river to enjoy myself, there was only a couple shady picnic benches under a pavilion, where some unruly looking miscreants were drinking. Ugh, no thanks.

I wanted to sit in the sun and soak up what little Vitamin D I could grab...and I looked and looked and no park benches to be seen, for miles of walking trail.

Instead, I went back to my car, rolled down the windows and did what I saw everyone else doing--sitting in their cars eating lunch with the windows rolled down in the park. Shameful.

There weren't any rummies drunk on the benches like I was used to seeing in Vancouver's parks but the sheer lack of any bench-like item was ridiculous. I want to sit in the sun, dammit!

The only park along the river that has benches/appropriate seating is Rotary Peace Park, on the way to the bridge into Riverdale. You have to drive to that one from where I am. Boo.

Restaurant Review: Earls

Not a true review as I just went for dessert at Earls, but it reminded me that I should do a review of it regardless. Let's start with dessert then:

First of all, the doors to get into the Earls are mindblowingly heavy. I am not a complete pantywaist but they were achingly ridiculous, the boyfriend had to step in and open them for me. Jeeze, feeling welcome yet?

Nevertheless, the layout for Earls is gorgeous. Dark, mimicked trees, cool booths, it all screams 'chic' even though we are in the Yukon and anyone not wearing rubber boots is 'trendy.' Even those can be trendy though.

We ordered dessert, the service was prompt and friendly, if a little strange (I totally know the server, in an offhand I've-seen-y0u-somewhere way) but the selection of desserts was a bummer. Clearly Earls is a place for cocktails and to be seen. Their cocktail menu was had a larger selection than their meals AND desserts. Woah.

I ordered the chocolate sundae in a candy dish and my partner ordered a NY cheesecake. We had a total choice of about 3 items-sundae, brownie pudding, cheesecake.

The cheesecake was $7.99 and the sundae was $6.50. Not really cheap. The desserts arrived promptly and we enjoyed them but the depth of the desserts was really lacking. My 'sundae' was 3 scoops of vanilla bean ice cream with some chocolate sauce lightly drizzled. Hmm. More like vanilla with a little bit of chocolate sauce, instead of a sundae drenched in syrup like I was hoping. I have to say I've had better at Dairy Queen.

My partners NY cheesecake was a thin little slice, tasty but small. Expensive for rather lacking desserts--got our sweet fix but...that's about it. High on appearence, low on quality/value.

Menu-wise, the last time we ate there I had the 'Big Bowls' yellow curry dish. It was unbelieveably salty, and curry should never be salty. It was around $16-17 back in September and I looked last weekend and it was $18.99!! Trust me, the quality hasn't gone up THAT much. Jesus.

Also, we had a server that gave us styrofoam food containers when we requested our leftovers be packed up--and we were puzzled, but ended up scooping my salty remnants into the package right at our table. Isn't that their job? Bizarre.

And as always, the cocktails menu exceeds the food menu in array and price. I also got a mint/cucumber mojito and the overeager server grabbed it and asked if I wanted a new one ($$ cha-ching!) when I was fully planning on eating my garnish cucumber and mint leftover! Pfft.

Restaurants are expensive here. Choose wisely. Appearence doesn't always have to be a battle for quality.

Whatever part of you that's been calling the shots is fired

Ah, springtime...the sun is shining, it snows only occasionally and yesterday it was +10!

The mud was incredible though, I never thought I'd come so close to seeing a pony get stuck, with me riding him! Yikes! Lucky thing I was wearing my awesome Hatley pink pony boots--yes, the lesson kiddies complimented me and asked me where I got 'em. Answer? Mom of course.

Oh and another lovely accessory of spring: insane allergies. I have no idea what in Whitehorse is triggering my latent and late-in-life allergies but it is totally whacking out my system. My head feels like it got stuffed with cotton, perhaps replacing my brain, and then the whole shebang is floating around with the clouds. Maybe that's why I can't seem to spell or type today. And I have a lovely throat-itching/clearing thing that's going on as well, that seems to be chiefly purposed to irritate anyone within a 10ft perimeter of me. Sorry workpeople--you're pretty annoying in your own right anyways!

Arghh. I need a share in the stocks of Reactine, even though they don't seem to be working except to make me very drowsy (and this is the non-drowsy kind) and fall asleep on the couch in the middle of the afternoon on Sundays.

It's not the cherry blossom pollen, that's Vancouver and Victoria--it is much too barren to have anything really sprouting here. What is it? This scourge and plague of my poor head and nasal passage--oh, and incessant sneezing is really attractive too.

My brain is about to get fired my the rest of my body, currently on revolt. Stupid allergies.

Farewell to ski season!

And welcome slush season!

As melted snow puddles at the end of my driveway, evading every attempt by my partner to persuade it to puddle elsewhere, thoughts turn to bike riding rather than skiing. I am not prepared to bike ride anywhere (ahh terrifying!) but I have to say I am more than ready for the slush--I have two awesome horse rubber boots in my posession and nary a leak in either!

Also I began the epic leg-shaving that precedes skirt season, which is still a very brief time here. I, and probably many other Whitehorsean women, let the leg stuff go for awhile (ok, months) and removing it was herculean. It involved two razors, boyfriend's shaving cream and many curses as shampoo dripped in my eyes. Arghh! Sasquatch-legs no longer! Although there is now a sort of peach fuzz. Apparently this is a two day job, who knew?

Fingers crossed for sunshine and no more freaking wind. I think the high this week so far has been about 5 deg. and yes I have been compulsively comparing it with Vancouver's temp. (10-13 deg.)

Time to frolic in the disgusting leftover snow with the many layers of dog shit that seem to be revealed all at once. Ew. It will be gone soon and we will have lush lawns, not these corpse-like blades that are struggling through the mud.

Daffodil season, and tulip season started down south. Here? Mud season.

A fun place to visit!

This is going to sound very touristy... but I really liked Skagway!

A quaint (on purpose) main street, a lovely little cemetery with freshened up tombstones that you can actually read, and really ancient ones, and a little waterfall. What more could a tourist want?

The downside of Skagway is the sheer amount of cruise ships that come in to swarm like a bunch of flies in the summer. When I was there, only one cruise ship was in, so the town was relatively deserted. That didn't stop a rude tourist from asking us why the brew-pub wasn't open. For one, we don't work there, how do we know? And two, the sign was right in front of her face, dumbass.

Great restaurants: Crab shack off Main for lunch. No frills paper-plates and interesting dining on plastic chairs but soooo delicious!

Dinner: Star Thai. Fabulous Thai food, meals run around $14-$16, 1-2$ substitution if you want noodles vs. rice in your dish. Amazing food!

You must do the $5 for 15 minutes brothel tour hosted by the Red Onion Saloon. A classic and actually a pretty interesting little setup. Bonus garter with the tour!

Also, try the Blueberry beer. Fan-fucking-tastic. Only available at the touristy pub on Main on the right side of the road.

You can avoid the tourist-Made-in-China crap, but hey, it's more fun to mock 'em! Visit the shops, but avoid the one that smells like chemicals further down Main on the left hand side. Ew...

Best of all? Skagway is only 2 hrs away from Whitehorse. Go during early Spring and rejoice!

Swindled! From poison sweets to counterfeit coffee...

-The Dark History of the Food Cheats- by Bee Wilson

Yes, another book review courtesy of yours truly in conjunction with the new book section at the Whitehorse Public Library.

Milk and dairy products tainted with melamine to artificially boost their protein content, children's toys and paint contaminated with lead colourings...sounds like the early 1800's in Britain, doesn't it?

Sadly, these kinds of food and product contaiminations still seem to occur today, as the melamine and lead scandals of China occured just after this book was published in 2007. Is China the Britain of the 2000's?

"Our pickles are made green by copper; our vinegar rendered sharp by sulphuric acid; our cream composed of rice powder or arrow root in bad milk; our comfits (coated dried fruit candy) are mixed of sugar, starch and clay, and coloured with preparations of copper and lead..." Frederick Accum (1769-1838) lamented at the poor state of British food.

Wilson, the author, notes that food has always had the power to kill us as well as sustain us. But at what cost do we adulterate and change food products for a more pleasing appearence to to artificially maintain protein counts?

In this book, an astounding amount of ignorance and slyness combine to stealthily poison the British public for decades, if not centuries. From pickles to children's candy, wine to milk, nothing was safe, ever.

Several men championed for food safety, and it was the initial attempts of Accum (who fell from fame in Britain after 'stealing' pages from a book and not citing others when he used their words, verbatim) that brought these food swindles and poisonings to the forefront.

I think food adulteration can and should be divided into two camps: intentional (adding lead because red food colouring carmine is too expensive, melamine to boost protein) and unintentional (selling pickles coloured with copper because the consumer demands it look extra green)

Even the Americas couldn't escape the nasty grip of food adulterating. Upton Sinclair's The Jungle was supposed to be a cry from the proletariat inciting socialism, but instead people leapt on the horrendous conditions of slaughterhouses described within (1905) and were horrified. People falling into rendering vats and turned into lard, tubercular pigs and cows, rotten meat 'polished' for sale to the unsupecting public, rats mixed in sausages, the atrocities were too many to name.

It seems that with introduction of the Food and Drug act (Canada has one too) food adulterating took a sharp turn. No longer are we concerned about corn meal in pure wheat, or boosting cinnamon with a cheaper spice or flour--now we have food that is technically perfect but has not one drop of nutrient. Artifical flavours run rampant in today's food society, and Wilson argues that it isn't 'better' than the previous food adulteration, because what does artifical flavouring give us?

Wilson also provides a nice example of the strawberry milkshake: made by us, with milk, ice cream, sugar and strawberries. Made my McDonald's and you get a witches brew of Amyl Acetate, amyl butyrate, valerate, anethol, anisyl formate... Doesn't sound like edible products, does it?

Wilson ends the book (and there is SO much more, this is a very brief snippet) with an emphatic warning: know where your food comes from, grow it yourself, shop organic if possible. If it sounds too good to be true, it's artifical and probably from China (that's my inference).

You can find it in the new books section at the Whitehorse Public Library.

Conference time!

For writers, that is! Woo!!

I am attending the Whitehorse Writer's Conference this weekend. The event kicks off with a dessert reception at the Westmark tonight, and registration for classes. Tomorrow (a little too bright 'n' early for my liking) we start classes, finishing the day with questions to the professionals attending in a panel-style interview.

I am very excited, and not sure if I am going to pitch anything, as I haven't been really working on much but boy, do I have some ideas! Nothing concrete though.

Lunches, the dessert reception and coffee breaks are all covered in the fee. It's a pretty hardcore setup, running from 9am-4:30 or so...

The guests of honour are: Claire Eddy, senior editor of Tor/Forge Books, Shawna McCarthy, agent, Lily Gontard, founding editor of North of Ordinary, Lynn Missen, executive editor of children's books at HarperCollins Canada, Paula Eykelhof, executive editor of Harlequin (wooo), Howard White, professional history writer, Kathleen Scheibling, works with Paragon Entertainment.

Two full days of writing workshops and a possibility of an intense critique (no tears though!). OOoooh, am I really ready for this? Well, even if I'm not, I'm ready for some cool tricks and tips. And dessert.

Best part? To bring these pros up here, snacks and lunch for Sat/Sun, the conf. fee was very reasonable. $90 flat. Can't beat it!

Also as a sidenote, one of my former professors lectured at a Whitehorse Writer's Conference back around 2003 or 2005. Cool.

Places to visit

Or, not visit.

I am planning a trip to Anchorage, AK. (Well when I say 'I' am planning, I really mean someone else is planning and I am going to come along...)

Apparently it is quite the booming metropolis, which surprised the heck out of me. I always pictured Whitehorse as being the last place on a map. Past that, and all that exists are sea monsters and a great whiteness 'the nothing' or a place the langoliers ate. Basically, I always felt like Whitehorse was the last frontier and the world pretty much ends here. I can't help it, haha, I always feel rather isolated. Does anyone else think of the movie Insomnia when they think about Alaska?

Anyways, Anchorage has a population of about 300,000 people, tons of hostels and fast food restaurants, and the best part? A roving moose population that wander people's suburban landscapes like tame bulls escaped from a farm. Scary but kind of neat too. Also, the primary grazing for a typical Anchoragian person is a diner. Rough Guides tells us that, and they also mention that the coffee at a 'diner' is terrible. Hmm.

The downside is that it is about a 12-14 hr drive from Whitehorse, and there are not really any flights that service Whitehorse>surrounding areas. Bummer!
So, this Easter I am not going to Vancouver or some exotic locale like that, but I am making an effort to get the hell out. Fingers crossed it goes as plans!!

Yukon Made = Premium $$

The spring Spruce Bog Craft Sale occurred this past Saturday at the High Country Inn. A friend attended and was a tad disappointed at the selection of booths. Only about 20-30 booths were there and the crafts were sky-high priced. Is it just me or did you think craft meant not premium goods, but a certain homespun quality, nice but not super expensive? Yeah, that's what she thought. An Ontarian, she is used to a wide variety of quality craft sales, and not used to suffering sticker shock at the whimsical stained glass, or bottles of jam, or handmade salt scrubs.

Don't get me wrong, crafters need to make some bucks too. But $13-14 for fireweed syrup? $10 for salt scrub? $7.50 for a medium-sized jar of cranberry jelly? Might as well stop by the ATM before you go, because a couple of bucks just aren't going to cut it.

I did attend the Christmas Spruce Bog at the Canada Games Centre and had a great time. There were tons of booths (easily 50+) and lots of variety. I bought some very reasonably-priced soaps ($4 each, beer and spearmint) and was very tempted but the baked goods prices scared me away...c'mon $9.00 for dulce de leche syrup? an $8.00 apple crumble? yeesh.

I bake myself, while maybe not that well, but I know what the ingredients cost. Let's be a little more realistic.

Now if it was buffalo beef jerky...well...

I think I could dig a ltitle deeper for some change. You can't make that stuff at home!

In conclusion: Yukon Made=expensive.

Buffalo jerky=worth it.

Seasonal candy is still too expensive

Easter, Easter Easter...

Surpasses even Christmas for good chocolate and candy.

I wish we had good candy store. Not Shoppers Drug Mart, or Superstore or Walmart (although I hate to say it, thank god we have those!)...but quality, you know? (I did find green Peeps. oooh)

I'm afraid if we took those big-box encroachers out of the picture, our food and necessities would skyrocket into the realm of $8 orange juice and $9 freezer burned steaks! (oh wait, that has happened. Sorry Dawson, haha!)

As it is, Easter chocolate at Superstore and Shoppers' is absurdly priced. For a basket of 4 Kinder Surprise Eggs, $4.99. A plastic egg of Ferrero Rocher chocolates, $8.99. A bag of mixed mini's ; Cadbury's creme eggs and caramel eggs--a shocking $8.99--yeah I couldn't believe it either. And you just know they won't go on sale afterward either...or wait, they might go down a *gasp* $.50 !!! OH, the deals!

A plastic jar of knock-off Eggies costs $12.00 at Shoppers. Highway robbery! It's not even glass.

Pathetic.

WWTEBD?

What Would The Easter Bunny Do?? Think of the Bunnies!!! (or me.)

Those cavities won't make themselves, you know!