Book ~ "Positive personality profiles: "d-i-s-c-over" personality insights to understand yourself - and others!" - Robert Rohm (1997)

From Amazon.com ~ Using the easily learned "D-I-S-C" system, Dr. Rohm’s Positive Personality Profiles helps readers understand themselves and others. This book will clearly describe key differences in basic personality types, give practical insights into how people respond, provide keys for understanding your children, and explain methods for working with others.

My Marketing Management instructor introduced us to this in Tuesday night's class. Gord and I are both ISDCs:

I ~ People/outgoing
S ~ People/reserved
D ~ Task/outgoing
C ~ Task/reserved

I strengths ~ friendly, compassionate, carefee, talkative, outgoing, enthusiastic, warm, personable, fun

I weaknesses ~ weak-willed, unstable, undisciplined, resltess, loud, undependable, egocentric, exaggerative, frivolous

I under control ~ optimistic, persuasive, excited, communicative, spontaneous, outgoing, expressive, involved, imaginative, warm/friendly

I out of control ~ unrealistic, manipulative, emotional, gossip, impulsive, unfocused, excitable, directionless, daydreaming, purposeless

I Types like ... exposure to people, lots of activity, making people happy, making people laugh, short-term projects, to be on the go, prestige, selling while they play

I Types ... can be "higher than a kite" or "lower than a skunk", have lots of friends, wrongly believe that talking and doing are synonymous, need self-discipline

I Types are ... fun to watch, great starters, poor finishers, likeable, prone to exaggerate, easily excitable

I Types don't like ... being ignored, being ridiculed, being isolated, doing repetitive tasks

I Types want you to be ... fun, responsive, stimulating, postive, upbeat, enthusiastic

CPR Certification

I got my CPR certification (level C) this afternoon. It was a Girls Night Out Club event in conjunction with Single Horizons (I'm a member of both clubs).

LeeAnn, the owner of Single Horizons, was there and it was great to catch up with her as I haven't seen her in a while. I discovered that she is a loyal reader of this blog (hi, LeeAnn!!).

Learning CPR was as easy as ...

A ~ airway
B ~ breathing
C ~ circulation

We learned what to do if someone isn't breathing or has no pulse (or both).

We also learned what to do if someone is choking. That's Gil, the instructor, showing us what to do on LeeAnn (she was soooo pleased ... NOT!). And here's LeeAnn and I with our new pals for the afternoon.

Book ~ "Replay" - Ken Grimwood (1988)

From Goodreads ~ Jeff Winston was 43 and trapped in a tepid marriage and a dead-end job, waiting for that time when he could be truly happy, when he died. 

And when he woke and he was 18 again, with all his memories of the next 25 years intact. He could live his life again, avoiding the mistakes, making money from his knowledge of the future, seeking happiness. 

Until he dies at 43 and wakes up back in college again...

Awesome book! This is the second time I've read it in two years.

Book ~ "We Thought You Would Be Prettier: True Tales of the Dorkiest Girl Alive" - Laurie Notaro (2005)

From Goodreads ~ She thought she’d have more time. Laurie Notaro figured she had at least a few good years left. But no - it’s happened. She has officially lost her marbles. From the kid at the pet-food store checkout line whose coif is so bizarre it makes her seethe “I’m going to kick his hair’s ass!” to the hapless Sears customer-service rep on the receiving end of her Campaign of Terror, no one is safe from Laurie’s wrath. Her cranky side seems to have eaten the rest of her inner thigh, Chub Rub and all. And the results are breathtaking. 

Her riffs on email spam (“With all of these irresistible offers served up to me on a plate, I WANT A PENIS NOW!!”), eBay (“There should be an eBay wading pool, where you can only bid on Precious Moments figurines and Avon products, that you have to make it through before jumping into the deep end”), and the perils of St. Patrick’s Day (“When I’m driving, the last thing I need is a herd of inebriates darting in and out of traffic like loaded chickens”) are the stuff of legend. And for Laurie, it’s all true.

I really enjoy her books and this one was very funny, as were the other books of hers I've read.

"Léo", Tarragon Theatre, Toronto

Set in Santiago, Chile, three young friends form a bittersweet love triangle during the political upheaval surrounding President Salvador Allende’s assassination. Told through Léo's memories, the play travels through childhood, first friends and first loves. Passion and poetry weave together in this story of innocence disappeared.

This play was at a small theatre at the Tarragon Theatre, which seats about 80 people. We sat in the front row and it felt like I was eavesdropping on a conversation rather than watching the play. The first 10 minutes or so sets up the events to come and it gets rather intense after that. I enjoyed it and would recommend it!

Before the play, we had supper at Mayday Malone's at Bathurst/Dupont, just south of the theatre. Both Gord and I had pizza. Mine was pepperoni with roasted red peppers. Very yummy! Gord had pepperoni, mushrooms and bacon and pesto sauce instead of tomato sauce and said it was good.

Toronto Marlies 2, Syracuse Crunch 3

Gord and I went to a Toronto Marlies game tonight. They are the Maple Leafs' farm team and this is their first year in Toronto (they spend the last 13 years in St. John's, NF).

It was a great game but alas Toronto lost. The score was tied at the end of the third period so there was a five minute sudden death and then a shoot out.

It's good cheap hockey and the arena was about 1/4 full. Our tix were only $10 each and, because there were so many empty seats, we sat in better ones after the first period.

Book ~ "Enchanted, Inc." - Shanna Swendson (2005)

From Amazon.com ~ Fish-out-of-water Katie Chandler suffers in her thankless job as assistant to marketing manager "Evil Mimi," worrying that maybe she just can't hack it in New York City. Will her colleagues ever consider her anything but a hick? For a girl from Texas, the Big Apple is stranger than a foreign country, but she discovers that the weird things she notices are signs of real magic afoot. Her "small-town honesty and common sense" soon land her a new job at Magic, Spells, and Illusion Inc., which traffics in benevolent sorcery. "You ... are of the rare breed who can neither do magic nor be influenced by magic. You see the world as it is," an MSI executive explains. With her clear-sightedness, plus business acumen gained working for her family's feed-and-seed store, Katie will play a pivotal role in MSI's magical battle against a malevolent competitor. From sanitized descriptions of New York City life to hunky wizards and fairies on the subway, this book is pure and innocent fantasy, suitable for preteens or readers hungry for a cotton candy read.

I didn't really enjoy this book so I don't know why I finished it. The story was wacky - not what I usually read but I was willing to go "outside my box". I didn't really care for the writing and I found it kind of boring. But I kept at it hoping it would get more exciting ... and it didn't. Very predictable and blah.

Second City, Toronto, ON

We went to Second City tonight with my friend, Franca, and her husband, Rafeil. It was good to see them again.

The theme was Reloaded. It was sketches and most of them were funny. The performers were lively and a couple of the guys were a hoot!

Book ~ "Girlfriends for Life: Friendships Worth Keeping Forever" - Carmen Renee Berry and Tamara Traeder (1999)

From Chapters.ca ~ What's one of the most meaningful relationships in your life? You probably have a great girlfriend who's been your best friend through thick and thin. Girlfriends for Life: Friendships Worth Keeping Forever is a tribute to a woman's most passionate defenders and trusted critics - her girlfriends. Berry and Traeder continue the best-selling Girlfriends series with a book that includes new material from fan mail and true stories from readers.

Quick feel-good book.

Like son, like father?

Here's Gord and KC crashed on the couch tonight. Yesterday his son, Ken, was in the same position with the same dog!

KC is definitely a bad influence!!

Super Bowl

Gord decided to host the Super Bowl party at our place this year. So he invited his son, Ken, and his childhood friends, Alfred, Craig and Kevin.

He started labouring over a big pot of chili on Friday night. I'd never had chili before and it seemed weird to have a big bowl of thick sauce. So I make some fresh bread (using my bread machine) and a pot of rice.

An hour into the game, we ate. And I've gotta say that I really enjoyed the chili ~ it was very tasty. And having the rice and bread was a nice touch!

Craig had arrived with a big duffel bag. After we ate, he hauled out his comfy pants (which he changed into) and a big brown blanket. He sprawled out on the floor and watched the rest of the game. Ken eventually did the same.

I'd never been to a Super Bowl party. And this was a wild and crazy one ... NOT!! Ha! But they had fun hangin' out and it was great to see them.

Book ~ "The Glass Castle : A Memoir" - Jeannette Walls (2006)

From Amazon.com ~ Freelance writer Walls opens her memoir by describing looking out the window of her taxi, wondering if she's "overdressed for the evening" and spotting her mother on the sidewalk, "rooting through a Dumpster." Walls's parents—just two of the unforgettable characters in this excellent, unusual book—were a matched pair of eccentrics, and raising four children didn't conventionalize either of them. Her father was a self-taught man, a would-be inventor who could stay longer at a poker table than at most jobs and had "a little bit of a drinking situation," as her mother put it. With a fantastic storytelling knack, Walls describes her artist mom's great gift for rationalizing. Apartment walls so thin they heard all their neighbors? What a bonus—they'd "pick up a little Spanish without even studying." Why feed their pets? They'd be helping them "by not allowing them to become dependent." While Walls' father's version of Christmas presents—walking each child into the Arizona desert at night and letting each one claim a star—was delightful, he wasn't so dear when he stole the kids' hard-earned savings to go on a bender. The Walls children learned to support themselves, eating out of trashcans at school or painting their skin so the holes in their pants didn't show. Buck-toothed Jeannette even tried making her own braces when she heard what orthodontia cost. One by one, each child escaped to New York City. Still, it wasn't long before their parents appeared on their doorsteps. "Why not?" Mom said. "Being homeless is an adventure."

Excellent book! Walls had a wacked upbringing and it's amazing that she has turned out as successful as she had.

KC got a fur cut!

It was time for KC to get a fur cut today ~ she was looking very shaggy! Here are the before and after pix. We take her to a great groomer named Pat at Clean Paws.











I took the boys in for their annual check up this morning. They are both healthy. Yay! The vet is very happy that Morgan is taking to his puffer.

Book ~ "Friendshifts: The Power of Friendship and How It Shapes Our Lives" - Jan Yager (1999)

From Amazon.com ~ A rewarding, sensible self-help manual for making, keeping and improving friendships, sociologist Yager's how-to takes its title from a word she coined, which refers to the way friendships change as we move through life's stages. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with adults, children, teenagers, workers and executives, she examines the challenges to friendship posed by marriage, divorce, parenthood, job changes and geographic relocation. Yager has distilled a morass of psychological and sociological research, including her own. Among her findings: it takes an average of three years to form a genuine friendship; women, as they advance in the corporate hierarchy, increasingly distrust workplace friendships, whereas men open up and trust these friends more; friendships can be a source of help for dysfunctional families, and for adults who had poor early relationships with parents or siblings. This primer amply supports its central message, that friends are vital to our emotional health.

Excellent analysis of friendships.

Book ~ "The Know-It-All : One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World" - A. J. Jacobs (2005)

From Amazon.com ~ The original Berserkers were "savage Norse soldiers" of the Middle Ages who went into battle stark naked! Or consider the Etruscan habit of writing in "boustrophedon style." Intrigued? Either hunker down with your own Encyclopædia Britannica or buy Esquire editor Jacobs's memoir of the year he spent reading all 32 volumes of the 2002 edition—that's 33,000 pages with some 44 million words. Jacobs set out on this delightfully eccentric endeavor attempting to become the "smartest person in the world," although he agrees smart doesn't mean wise. Apart from the sheer pleasure of scaling a major intellectual mountain, Jacobs figured reading the encyclopedia from beginning to end would fill some gaps in his formal education and greatly increase his "quirkiness factor." Reading alphabetically through whole topics he never knew existed meant he'd accumulate huge quantities of trivia to insert into conversations with unsuspecting victims. As his wife shunned him and cocktail party guests edged away, Jacobs started testing his knowledge in a hilarious series of humiliating adventures: hobnobbing at Mensa meetings, shuffling off to chess houses, trying out for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, visiting his old prep school, even competing on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Indeed, one of the book's strongest parts is its laugh-out-loud humor. Jacobs's ability to juxtapose his quirky, sardonic wit with oddball trivia make this one of the season's most unusual books.

Interesting (and funny at times) book that took me about six weeks to read ~ like reading the actual encyclopedia, I could only read it in bits here and there.