Six days ago, I posted a quote by Antoine de Saint Exupéry on my twitter account. The English translation reads: When life is difficult, like it is right now, I read this: “What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well”. So Internet, why did I write this? Because I had a week that started with a 15 thousand dollar bill in damages from my former rental company. This was for house I lived in for one year.

Now, I probably should start with some history. In July 2007, I made the mistake of taking over a garbage dump of a house. I co-signed the lease with my mom, and found 5 friends to live in this godforsaken place with me. When I say that the house was a garbage dump, I’m probably underestimating its brutality. When I moved in there was a basement full of random stuff, old sofas in the “living room”, broken tiles, peeling paint… etc. I asked for all of these things to be fixed when I first moved in, but the property manager refused.

The rental company was so terrible that, when the house got robbed in November, they put up some flimsy wooden boards to cover the hole and we waited a whole week to get that door replaced. We contemplated leaving, but were intimidated by the property manager, so we ended up sticking it out. I remember counting down the months, days, hours until I would move out and be free.

So this bill came last week, care of a lawyer that represents my former rental company. The items on it were things like “chipping paint”, “leaking ceiling”, “broken tiles”, “refurbish bathroom” and so on. Keep in mind that all of these things were not only present when I moved in, but were the VERY things I asked (in vain) to be fixed when I did the initial home inspection. In the moment however, I was unable to see the ridiculousness of it all, and naturally burst into tears in the lobby.

I called a bunch of landlord and tenant offices. Have you ever done this in Toronto? If not, let me tell you, it SUCKS. Every person refers you to someone else, or you’re not in the right district, or you’re calling at the wrong time.

Then someone called back. He mentioned that he would handle it and it would all go away.

These are MAGICAL words when you’re in shock and upset. I immediately headed over to his office, only to have him ask for 200 dollars. When I did hand over the money, he became someone else. He asked me all sorts of inappropriate questions and would yell at me when I questioned him. When I finally got out of there, I found out that he is not part of the Landlord and Tenant Board, as I initially thought. He was a scam artist, and would later refuse to return my phone calls, my money or my documents. I checked his status on the Better Business Bureau and he has all sorts of claims against him.

The following day, I found a legal aid clinic, with a fantastic student lawyer. She tried calling the scam artist, who in turned yelled at her and hung up. She wrote me a great letter stating that I was not responsible for the damages. I picked it up on Thursday then express-posted it to the lawyers.

On Friday, I was part of a panel of four students who presented our thesis projects to the new MA class that we were part of last year. After my presentation, I checked my voice mail and there was a message from the lawyers stating that the damages were clearly not my fault, and I should have never received that bill in the first place.

So in the desert of my week, where did I find the well? It’s strange, but I think that this experience taught me to be nicer to everyone. In the middle of this, I found myself learning more about a woman who served coffee at Tim Horton’s and has a sister in Florida with a grapefruit tree. I waited for a girl at work, and made sure that everyone waited for her too, before going to training so she didn’t have to walk alone.

I think it also made me stronger. I’m waiting to get my documents back from the scam artist, but once I do, I’ve resolved to make sure that no other woman seeks legal advice from him, and that no one hands him money when a much nicer and more qualified option is just down the street.

I recognize that I have to stop posting pictures of various domestic/barnyard animals. And I’ll really try to limit it from here on out… But we went to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair on Saturday and it’s so wonderful to be able to see a freshly-sheared (and somewhat frazzled) sheep.

Because it’s a slower season at work, I’ve had lots of time on my hands, and have been baking lots. I took the following recipe from the All Bran website, and replaced the bran with Kashi cereal. I really like these, and they’re great if you want a snack without preservatives. I substituted honey with Barley Malt Syrup/Extract and a bit of Maple Syrup.

HOMEMADE KASHI BARS

Ingredients
2 cups Cereal, 2/3 cup raisins, 1/2 cup chopped nuts, 1 tablespoon margarine or butter, 1/2 cup honey, 1/4 cup peanut butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions
1. Stir together the cereal, raisins and nuts. Set aside.
2. In 3-quart saucepan, combine margarine, honey and peanut butter. Stir over medium heat until mixture is well blended. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla, cinnamon and cereal mixture.
3. Press mixture into 9 x 9 x 2-inch pan coated with cooking spray.

Cut into 20 bars when cooled. Store covered, in refrigerator.

I also made carrot cake, because (admittedly) I ate the last 1/4 of the slice R. bought last week. Even though this took most of the evening, it was worth it.

CARROT CAKE

Ingredients
6 cups grated carrots, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup raisins, 4 eggs, 1 1/2 cups white sugar, 1 cup vegetable oil, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 1 cup unsweetened apple sauce, 3 cups all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt, 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions
1. In a medium bowl, combine grated carrots and brown sugar. Set aside for 60 minutes, then stir in raisins.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3. Grease and flour two 10 inch cake pans.
4. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light. Gradually beat in the white sugar, oil and vanilla. Stir in the apple sauce.
5. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, stir into the wet mixture until absorbed. Finally stir in the carrot mixture and the walnuts. Pour evenly into the prepared pans. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes in the preheated oven, until cake tests done with a toothpick.
6. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan. When completely cooled, frost with cream cheese frosting.

N.B. This makes a LOT of carrot cake. It could easily be halved. When grating the carrots, it is important to press/strain out juices intermittently (otherwise the cake consistency will be ruined). I saved the juices in order to colour some of the icing for the decorative carrots.

I made the frosting with cream cheese and icing sugar. It was pretty runny but light, which was nice because it didn’t overpower the carrot flavor. I didn’t really measure the ingredients out, but there a bazillion icing recipes online, so they’re easily found.

We just replaced the modded XBOX for a modded Apple TV, which is great because I can now flip through flickr pages (mine & friends) when I can’t find anything to watch on regular TV. I’m excited!

I am in job application hell. I remember this place. It went by the name of “Breakdown, Summer 2004″ when I realized that human resources departments across the globe (I assume?) decided to implement a loathsome strategy by which applicants have to jump through hoops and fill out a million-and-one forms and irritating little drop-down menus which include questions such as “Are you legally entitled to work in Canada” to “If a train is traveling south at a speed of 150 mph would you jump in front of it in order to complete your work assignment in a quick and accurate manner?” Ack. I understand the purpose behind these questions, but some of them border on the absurd.

One of the multiple choice questions I had to fill out went something like this:
Equality in the workplace means:
a) Treating everyone the same, it is a right.
b) Treating certain people in a similar manner.
c) Everyone should be treated like family.
d) Individuals are inherently similar and should be treated well.

I kid you not. But I’m patient, because I know the perfect job is out there, waiting for me, and will hopefully not require “Breakdown - Part Two, premature-hair-pulling-induced-baldness!” So far I’m not there yet! Hooray?!

Last weekend R. & I went to Riverdale Farm which, believe it or not, is only 15 minutes away in the downtown core. It’s a little piece of heaven in the midst of this insane concrete jungle. We saw a cow’s butt, a really cute donkey, hens roosting, and this goat, who took it upon himself to stand on the highest spot of the barn, which consisted of a small wooden box. But you better believe that he OWNED that box, you could just tell that he was as proud as peacock…. only, you know… he was a goat. It was a great mini-trip that should tide me over until the Royal Ontario Winter Fair this weekend.

It was a fantastic day all around. Fall is beautiful, despite the cold, and I’m clinging to the days that are still above freezing… At least until a month from now, when I’ll be on a beach sipping a tropical drink!

I want to own a dog (again). It has been too long. The dog pictured above is a one year old black lab named Rascal whose owners ran the apple farm we visited a month ago. Like many other things in life, I’m in a spot where can’t have what I don’t need. I don’t need a dog, although it may seem like it to me sometimes. Particularly difficult, for example, are the mornings or evenings en-route to and from work, where I am taunted by the dog park full of adorable bouncing and trotting canines. Part of me yells “I want a dog NOW. Nownownow!” I feel like a four year old in the toy store aisle. “It’s unfair that everyone else can own a dog but me.” Then the rational, practical (and budget-wise) part of me has to calm the other down. Yes I am this psychotic. And yes, it’s pretty tough to be like this.

I don’t spend absurd amounts of money on most things. My mom, who was raised in post WWII England made me astutely aware about saving -and engrained the “waste not want not” motto in my head. I think it has served me in some ways, and then has been truly detrimental in others. I hate debt, for example. I hate paying money in interest to already-rich banks. On the other hand, giving things away is brutal, and there have been times where I’ve carried stuff to thrift stores while bawling my eyes out.

I don’t really know where I’m going with this entry. To be honest, it’s not even 11 on a Friday night and I’m exhausted to the point of delirium. I’m working on a new theme to replace this generic one wordpress gave me by default.

Also, I signed up for 12seconds and here is one of the videos I made before I realized you can’t really put any significant content in 12 seconds, because, well, it’s twelve effing seconds:

Rice milk on 12seconds.tv

Rice milk tastes pretty bad… sort of chalky. Save yourself the money*, soy is way better.

*do you see how I tied that in perfectly to the other point in my post? do you!? flawless right?