Epiphanies Sparked by Cookies

Last night Dave came home from choir practice with these items.

1. good wine

2. Girl Guide Cookies.

Which kind of explains why he doesn't mind this gig at all. I mean, if I came home from work everyday with a bottle of good wine and a box of sweets I'd be all about lovin' work too. Corporate management - take note.

I was very excited about the wine, and also a little about the cookies, but I asked why I wasn't consulted in the choice of the cookies. Dave looked confused. Choices?

Yes, in the US we have Girl Scout cookies and we can choose from the following varieties:

1. Thin Mints - yum
2. Samoas - double yum
3. Tagalongs - nope
4. Do-si-dos - nope
5. Trefoils - to die for
6. Daisy go Rounds ???
7. Thanks a lot ???? (do you detect a slight note of sarcasm here?)
8. Lemon Chalet Cremes ???
9. Sugar Free Chocolate Chips - blasphemy
10. Dulce de Leche - probably great but ???
11. Lemonades ???

Now this is what I've discovered about Canada. It's kind of a revelation, what some refer to as an ah-hah moment, or in cartoon land symbolized by the light bulb that suddenly goes on over an animated head -

Canada is not the United States.

And there's not a whole lot bad about that for several reasons but keeping with the scouting topic - you see, years ago when my girls were young, I was one of the first mothers to notice that Scouting was not about scouting at all. In fact, I used to remind my children (after handing them their lunchboxes and sending them out to the bus) of their "Future Saleswomen of America" meeting that afternoon. They would roll their eyes like they did whenever I balked at and sometimes raged against The Man.

I have some first hand experience with the scouts as I was a Brownie leader for a year. Yes, I realize how incredibly hard that is to believe, but bear with me. I actually tried to do scouting type things with the kids but the Organization was extremely wary of taking chances with the girls whose parents inevitably had lawyer friends and there were many many forms to fill out, permission slips to get and of course only certain bus companies, etc, that could be used for transportation. Getting through the red tape was so exhausting I decided that there might be nobler causes to sacrifice my every moment for and I didn't offer to lead a group after that.

But anyway. This is not a consumer driven society. There is just some stuff you can't get. In fact I came to another blinding realization the other day about Canada and the US - and that is

The Internet is Owned by the US

Don't believe me? You should step outside the US and attempt online shopping. Just saying.

But then, who needs half the crap you are tempted to buy with one click of the mouse anyway? I'm just thrilled to discover that Minnetonka Moccasins** are making a comeback and that they carry them at the Eaton Centre.

But that's another topic for another day.



**Author's Note: That's old hippie talk. For clarification go here. I particularly like the 5 layer fringe boot, and the fringe moc.