My Problem with Canadian Blood Services! - TKP

Canadian Blood services owes me an apology!

I went to give blood today and so I went through the whole routine......

- Make an appointment

- Show up for the appointment

- Tell them who I am, where I live, etc

- Wait in line

- Have another lady ask me who I am, where I live, etc.

- Get my finger poked

- Stop crying like a little girl (it REALLY hurt!!!!)

- Answer a bunch more questions

Then I am told to go to this booth and answer even more questions. These are more personal - stuff like "Do you have HIV or Aids? Have you had surgery recently? Are you on any medication? Have you been out of the country (other than to the US) in the past six months?" etc, etc.

Then comes the last question. The question for which I want an apology. They asked.....

"Have you worked with Monkeys in the last six months?"

I know that it sounds like I am making that up - but seriously - the last question on the section of questions that you answer yourself is about monkeys (Someone who has given blood recently write in and back me up on this).

Seriously - MONKEYS?????

No questions about the hundreds of rats running around our town!

No questions about rabid coyotes!

Not even a question about the really scary looking rig guy at noon hockey (and I really think that they should have asked about him) - but a question about Monkeys!!

Now - anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE Monkeys - so I took this question personally! What are they saying about Monkeys? What right do they have to slander a monkey's good reputation?

Monkeys have never hurt anyone - well other than time that one bit me (Dead serious - in college, this girl named Lisa and I went to a pet store and they had a monkey in a cage, so Lisa asked if she could feed him. The store owner said that she could so she gave him some food and then told me to try. I put my hand out just like she did, food sitting on the palm of my hand. The monkey reached out, grabbed my finger, stuck it in his mouth and sunk his fang in it. I literally had to rip it out - blood was everywhere - Lisa was laughing - the monkey was laughing - I still have the scar.... But - other than that - Monkeys have never hurt anyone!).

I did not go get a shot, or stitches or anything and look at me!!!! If anyone should be a little "off" because of a run in with a monkey... it should be me (and my mom says that I am just fine the way I am - so there!)

So - on behalf of monkeys everywhere - I demand an apology for the segregation that they are facing at this point in history and I/we want compensation.... that or we would like someone who works at blood services to explain this to me - maybe some of you know someone who could help. ;) (Send her to my blog - please!)

My friends and I will be waiting! :)

Christmas Fun Part 2: The Moose Jaw edition (TKP)

I know that Christmas is gone (long gone it seems to me), but I just thought that I would round out the rest of our holidays by showing you some of the pics from the second leg of our journey - the Moose Jaw part.

Somehow we don't seem to have a lot of pics of what we did there - we went skating at the Speed skating oval (nothing), we played games till all hours of the night at Debbie and Dorian's (no pics), we played hockey on Lenny's backyard rink (none) - we ate a lot again (no visual evidence of that either).... but here are some pictures that we did take.


We had a great day doing this......

On New Year's Eve, we played this.......
And Megan kept doing this......
Then we even did a couple of nights of Karaoke (those of us who were brave enough to embarrass ourselves did it anyway - I will not name those who refused - or those who maybe should not have been so brave - it was fun anyway!)
And - finally - a shot of Auntie Debbie as she thinks to herself, "Whew! They will leave soon and I will get my nice, quiet house back". :)
A good time was had by all! :)