The Highs and Lows Which Were 2010

Another year comes to a end in record speed. They go by faster every year, I swear it. As I recall events that made up the past 365 days I see many on global, local and personal levels which really reshaped where we all are today.

Amidst controversy and tragedy, Vancouver played host to the 2010 Winter Olympics. The Olympic torch traveled across Canada allowing many people to carry it as it journeyed to BC. I was proud to be Canadian if only for a few weeks and it was a great feeling.

The world was changed by natural and manmade disasters in alarming numbers in 2010. An earthquake in Haiti, flash floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, land slides, the biggest oil spill in history, political unrest. They have forever changed the lives for millions worldwide. How sad.

On a personal level, I feel fortunate to have a great circle of family and friends and my partner Rob in my life. I have a good job and home, adorable pets and a unique thing called scribbles.

It hasn't all been fun and games for you and I this year. Some of you lost loved ones and jobs. I continued to deal with my chronic neck pain which took me out of circulation more times than I remember now.

Good, bad or ugly, 2010 will soon be written in the history pages as we see what trials and tribulations lay ahead in 2011.  I raise my glass and say thanks for being a part of my life this past year.  Here's to you, here to me and here's to scribbles -where everyone truly is a shining star.

Hugs,

Ken

Helpful Hints For Winter Driving

Keep your headlights clear with car wax! Just wipe ordinary car wax on your headlights. It contains special water repellents that will prevent that messy mixture from accumulating on your lights - lasts 6 weeks.

Squeak-proof your wipers with rubbing alcohol! Wipe the wipers with a cloth saturated with rubbing alcohol or ammonia. This one trick can make badly streaking & squeaking wipers change to near perfect silence & clarity.

Ice-proof your windows with vinegar! Frost on it's way? Just fill a spray bottle with three parts vinegar to one part water & spritz it on all your windows at night. In the morning, they'll be clear of icy mess. Vinegar contains acetic acid, which raises the melting point of water---preventing water from freezing!

Prevent car doors from freezing shut with cooking spray! Spritz cooking oil on the rubber seals around car doors & rub it in with a paper towel. The cooking spray prevents water from melting into the rubber

Fog-proof your windshield with shaving cream! Spray some shaving cream on the inside of your windshield & wipe if off with paper towels. Shaving cream has many of the same ingredients found in commercial defoggers.

De-ice your lock in seconds with hand sanitizer! Just put some hand sanitizer gel on the key & the lock & the problems solved!

Readers Find Frosty Once Again!

We hid a tiny Frosty on our home page last week. To enter this contest, readers were asked to tell us where he was hiding. All correct entries were then placed in a random draw.

Congratulations to

Kerri Fortier
 Niagara

She is the winner of our FIND FROSTY CONTEST and will receive her gift pack including Miracle on 34th Street DVD, BT Holiday Songs CD and plush toy.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to search for Frosty and then enter our contest.

Our next contest is coming in January.... PIMP MY PHONE CONTEST.... win an awesome collection of cellular accessories, cases and more.

Katy Perry on the Simpsons

Click here to view video clip of Katy & the Simpsons in this Christmas skit.

There's nothing like a nap after all

those holiday meals

J.R Gets In the Spirit

Bring out the holiday decorations and out comes J.R.  If it were up to him we'd keep everything on the floor, but Rob and I had other plans for these decorations.

Blue is the New Red and Green

Rob thought it would be nice to go blue with the bulbs and balls for our Christmas decor this year, which works perfectly with the blue accent walls. He has blue lights on the balcony and running across garland and throughout the rooms "snowman's" everywhere. Great job Rob!

She Loves Christmas Trees

Laura Degraaf told me a while ago that she just loves to decorate Christmas trees and if it were up to her she'd do it 24/7 during the holiday season. Here we have Ms. D posing with her very large and lovely tree. Click on pix to view it larger.

Nice job Laura- I see why you like it so much!

Purrfect family: injured dog at Edmonton shelter nurses 5 pups and a kitten

by Sylvia Strojek, The Canadian Press

She was a young, homeless single mom trying to raise a family of five, but true to the spirit of the season there was room for one more.


Esperanza had been badly injured when she was hit by a car, but the young shepherd-cross with the thick white coat was still managing to care for her newborn puppies - and a kitten - when she was found on a central Alberta reserve.


Criss Gerwing, who runs a small animal rescue group, discovered the dog earlier this month and couldn't believe it when the canine led her to her blended brood.
"I cried because she was in such bad condition with her leg, but she was obviously nursing her puppies and this kitten," Gerwing told a media outlet.


Gerwing took the entire family to the Edmonton Humane Society, where veterinarians thought they'd have to amputate the mother dog's bad leg.


But local vet, Dr. Milton Ness, volunteered to do a special surgery that saved Esperanza's hind quarter.
He calls her a "special soul." Shawna Randolph at the humane society couldn't agree more.

"She is such a sweet, sweet dog. She has such a wonderful personality," Randoph said.

"It's amazing when you think about it. You have this dog who is just so giving of herself, caring for these newborn puppies and the kitten, making sure they were cared for even though she was obviously in a lot of pain."

Jacob the cat was already four months old and shouldn't have been nursing at all, so humane society vets weaned him and he's now being cared for by a staff member.

But he's brought to the shelter every day to visit his adoptive mom and her babies. His canine step-siblings are too young to pay much attention to him - their eyes are barely open - but Esperanza is always excited to see Jacob and gives him lots of baths.

"He's actually acting more like a dog than a cat," Randolph said. "Kittens are very rambunctious and playful, but he just wants to hang out. As soon as he gets to the dog family he's ... cuddling. And even with his (human) foster mom, he follows her around like a dog does."

Esperanza's background is a mystery. No one has come forward to claim her, yet she's well socialized. She's only about one, but has had a definite taste of freedom - she loves to be outside and run around. It's not clear how long she may have been on her own or when Jacob came onto the scene and turned on his feline charm.

The devoted mother is recovering well. She and her pups will go into foster care after the holidays until permanent homes can be found for them. But the humane society ideally would like Esperanza and Jacob to be adopted together.
Randolph said their story is especially heart-warming at this time of year.

"It's all about family, isn't it, at Christmas time, and here you have the ultimate family."

And Esperanza's name bodes well for her and her furry family's future - it means "hope" in Spanish.

 coming in January

The LOL Club

 Will you be chosen?

Tim McGraw to Join Cast of Safe House


According to Reuters, the action thriller “Safe House” is set to star Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds in a story about the only surviving agent of an attack on a CIA safe house (Reynolds) as he tries to move a prisoner (Washington) to another safe house while bad guys try to kill them both.

Tim McGraw would reportedly play another CIA agent and mentor to Reynolds' character. But he may not be all he appears to be!

News of the star's involvement started building during promotion of Country Strong, the Nashville drama which stars Gwyneth Paltrow as a country singer trying to resurrect her career. McGraw plays her husband.

McGraw has been adding to his screen credits lately, appearing in several flicks, including 2004's Friday Night Lights - which earned him a nomination for best male breakthrough performance at the MTV Movie Awards – The Kingdom, Four Christmases, and the critically acclaimed The Blind Side, in which he played the husband of Sandra Bullock's character.

Catching Up with
You and Me

Hello Everyone!

As is often the case, life has kept me away from being able to work on scribbles as much as I had hoped to. My back and neck have been quite sore lately taking me away from sitting at my scribbles desk for my usual marathons. Then there's just life itself. Christmas is a busy time of year and work has been hectic. Add them all up and scribbling was the last thing I felt like doing.

Returning to the drawing board this weekend, I've changed our layout a bit. We now have left and right banner panels with our featured pieces running down the middle of the page. My web host calls those items posted in the side panels "gadgets". With our new format, we've arranged those gadgets for you to find things with greater ease. Scroll up and down, you'll see what we mean.

There's been so much going on with our scribbles friends as we are only days away from Christmas. Becky Lee and her girlfriends went to Cat's Caboose on Friday Dec 10 to see The Figure Four - featuring the "return" of Chris Burnett on guitar. I was supposed to join the gals, but again, because of my back, I stayed home instead (boring!)

My work pal Diane Murray should have lots of photos and tales to share the next time I see her.  She has just returned from a vacation in Florida -which was to include a trip to Disney (where Diane had never been before). We'll have more on this story very soon.

After some unexpected changes in plans, our friend Judy Quiring is now living in Leamington with her lovable dog Hudson. Scribbles sends a huge shout out to Judy and we love you!!

You just never know who you will run into when you are out Christmas shopping. The other day I was at our local mall the Pen Centre, when I saw our pal Tammie Holditch. Tammie works at the mall and was waiting to start her late shift -as the mall was having Moonlight Madness night. One of the things we talked a lot about was scribbles. Tammie may have only been made aware of scribbles a few months ago, but she is already one of our number one fans. Tammie has been busy checking out scribbles archives pages, "There's so many of them" Tammie exclaimed, "you've been doing this for a long time eh?"

How right you are Tammie, I have been scribbling for a while and it's for people like you that I keep on doing it. Thanks so much for all your kind words, that really made my day.

Only minutes after seeing Tammie, I saw my sister Kim Papple. She was at the mall for some shopping and was grabbing a tasty pretzel treat at one of the vendors. Kim and I chatted about how busy we have been at work these days. Well at least we both have jobs eh?  See you at Christmas sis, hope Erin's Christmas Concert is great.

Talk Wireless Mo Bros Participate in Movember

 by Christine Mantej

The 'Mo' slang for moustache, and November comes together each year for Movember.

Each year men are challenged to change their appearance and the face of men's health by growing a moustache. The moustache is a ribbon by which awareness and funds are raised for prostate cancer. Much like the commitment to run or walk for charity, the Talk Wireless Mo Bros committed to grow a moustache for 30 days.

The idea of Movember was first sparked in 2003 over a few beers in Milborne, Australia. In 2004 the program evolved and focused on raising awareness and funds for the number one cancer affecting men - prostate cancer. The Movember moustache has continued to grow and expanded to Canada since that time.

In 2009 global participation of Mo Bros and Mo Sistas climbed to 255,755 with over 1 million donors raising $47 millions for Movember's global beneficiary partners.

Last year the Canadian campaign was the second largest in the world behind Australia with, 35,156 Mo Bros and Mo Sistas coming together to raise $7.8 million for Prostate Cancer Canada.

McMeow

Our friend Marsha Scott hasn't had what one would call the greatest of years, making her good news stories even more exciting to share. Her voluptious cat "Lady" Lucy has lost 4.3 pounds after being on a new diet. This includes a two week span when I cat sat for Marsha when she was on vacation. I did not stray away from Lucy's diet.

Rumour has it I was responsible for her first weight gain spurt a few years ago, when I fed Lucy some McDonalds fries while cat sitting that year. When Marsha and her sister returned Lucy had grown and it was my fries that led her waddling down the path of evil.

Now she's 4.3 pounds lighter and has successfully completed a 12 Step program for her addiction to french fries... LOL

New Wheels for Gracie

Our good friend Becky Lee of St Catharines, has a new set of wheels to zip around town in. Becky now drives a new white 2011 GMC Terrain after bidding a fond and profitable farewell to her cute blue Sunfire.

I had an opportunity to go for a little drive in it recently. Inside is like a dream. Check out the dashboard, looks like something off Star Trek Next Generation. There's loads of perks, storage and ample seating. My back and neck were toasty warm, thanks to the heated seat, FIVE STARS for that one Grace, Jack likes a warm tush, especially on a windy, cold day like it was that Sunday.

Great car Becky -do I still call it a "car" now? You know how bad Jack is with this stuff. LOL

click pix for larger version

Even when the odds

are stacked against you,

Never give up!

 Will and Grace Contest Results

"Honey, what's going on here? 
What is this?"

We asked our readers to tell us which Will and Grace character is their favourite. Sure, the show has been off the air for a few years now, but thanks to DVD and TV syndication, we get to enjoy it forever and we wanted to who you like the most.

Half of the votes we received were for Karen. Not "Will and Grace" not "Just Jack", nope! Seems most of our readers think pill-popping, vodka-loving rich-bitch Karen Walker is numero uno. Hard to disagree with that one, although I am partial to "Jack" because I best identify with his character.

Everyone who cast their votes were entered in our Will and Grace Contest random draw.

 The winner of the Will and Grace Eighth Season DVD set and Official Will and Grace keychain is:

NICK MEHTA

THANK YOU to everyone who entered our Will and Grace Contest:

Nick Mehta, Kim Papple, Mikol Zarhorchak, Dave Nelson, Kerri Fortier, Megan Fox, Angela O'Neill-Whiteley, Pat Fenerty, Rob Dennis, Gary Cremier, Rhonda King, Tammie Holditch, Ginger Blythin, Becky Lee, Julia Boyse, Jane Storie, Jenn Bering, Clayton Hickey, Steve Sauder and Trish Dickie as Squish....LOL!

Here's a cool Will and Grace Collage
for you to enjoy or save.

click to view full screen version

Strike the Pose

Megan Fox (right) of Ottawa poses with gal pals from University in this amusing and creative photo taken a few years ago.