570News Blog: Lisa Drew

So…is there a vampire sitting next to you at the office today?
Turns out many are doing the Halloween thing today, wearing costumes to work..just like the kids do at school today.
Our Sherry Morley hit the streets this morning..and most people she talked to were getting into the spirit  - from donning a Kitchener Rangers uniform,  a bunny outfit..
or even showing up as Darth Vader.
Our workplace is taking part in the outfit thing today as part of a United Way fundraiser.  We have Hannibal Lecter, the Richard Gere character from an Officer and a Gentleman, to scary pirates.. to an 80’s lounge dude complete with hairy chest and gold chains!
Workspaces are also decorated up, complete with goodies and sound effects.

Not everyone is digging this day at the office though.
The workplace experts say costume donning on the job can crossover to the darkside.
The worry - some outfits may offend.
Some career coaches disagree and says it’s all about good team building.

The funniest bit on wearing costumes on the job comes today from the Globe and Mail..under the headline “What Spooks Workers at the Office”?

A U-S survey finds 34 percent of workers say the boss is the scariest…
25-percent say a co-worker is just plain scary.

Have a safe night.

lisa
 

Our 570 Insider survey takes a look at Halloween this week..
This is big business here in Canada, pretty much second to Christmas in terms of spending.
The Retail Council of Canada figures that 1.15 billion is spent on pumpkins, costumes, candy and decorations.
The council says we’ll each spend just under 60 bucks getting scary.
Men are the big spenders - they’re expected to spend an average of 72 dollars this year…

We don’t go that far at our place.. but I admit the pressure to be “Martha” factors in.
Our one neighbour has already taunted us… Mary Jane across the street is already promising bigger and better this year in terms of what lands on her lawn.. and lights up  her place.     
Our neighbourhood gets competitive in the goody department too.  We learned that the hard way our first year.  Some neighbours hand out the real stuff.. from a local and yummy chocolate shop..
Grandma-next-door lights up her gazebo, has hot chocolate and coffee going… and rice crispies and homemade cookies ready with her handouts.
Our neighbours around the corner hire local students to hide behind trees with chain saws a-buzzing… as kids slowly make their way up the dark laneway!

On the costume front:  I am not my mother.. I did not devote two weekends to sew and glue the kids outfits.  I went to the store like many other parents.. and after much debate with two boys.. they have their outfits.

Our four year old is going as.. as he says an “army guy”..
I prefer Canadian peacemaker.. given my army brat background!
I’ve ditched the plastic grenade that came with it. ( Hello!  What were they thinking? )   We’ve added his dog tag souvenirs from our trip to La Citadel this summer.. and a poppy too.

Our oldest.. now ten.. will go scary.  I’ve fought it for years but finally gave in.  He’ll wear the Scream mask, blood and all.  For school that day..he’ll tone it down and wear the “Nacho Libre” wrestling mask and cape.

Me?  Don’t know yet.

Get ready Mary Jane!

lisa

Yeah..this is about lipstick.   But hey guys,  you kiss us.. so read up.
Health Canada is looking into the safety of lipstick now that a consumer group has found lead in lip products stateside.
All I can think of now is that James Bond movie.. where the babe of a spy puts on her poisonous lipstick over her fake lips then plants one on him.
She leaves thinking she’s killed him off.
Bond peels off his fake lips when the coast is clear and continues on to save the world.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics recently tested a bunch of lipsticks and found enough lead to exceed allowable limits.
Forget the lead concern.. turns out some lipstick is made up of cow brain and coal tar!
Didn’t the City Of Kitchener just spend millions and millions
cleaning up coal tar around the downtown this year?

Health Canada says about ten percent of the stuff on our lips gets ingested.
The experts say the average woman will swallow two kilograms of lipstick over her lifetime.

Pass the fake lips…

lisa

Who knew?  Men actually talk more than women.

An Oxford philologist ( that’s someone who deals with the branch of knowledge  that deals with the linguistic aspects of literature..I  looked it up!)  says men and women really are not that different after all.

Deborah Cameron is out with a book “The Myth of Mars and Venus” and disputes that previous best-selling book that says women and men are really from different planets.

She says a number of studies have actually found that
man can talk more than women…but admits women can still talk…and talk a lot. ( I admit it…ask my co-workers for further proof )
Cameron also finds when women do get chatty we tend to do so with a smile.

Bottom line:  we all have something to say.. just some days one of the sexes might have a better way of saying it…or take longer to say it.

What’s that line from a famous Monty Python skit?
Nudge..nudge.. wink.. wink…say no more?
I’ll leave it at that. 

Happy Wednesday.

lisa
 

We lucked out.  We have a family doctor and
a pediatrician.
It turns out some five million Canadians don’t have a doctor and the number being thrown around locally is still over 40-thousand.
Will these numbers ever drop?
The College of Family Physicians held its annual meeting in Winnipeg this week.  It is challenging both provincial and federal governments to make sure that 95-percent of Canadians have a doctor in the next five years.
We found a family doctor very soon after moving here thanks a trip to the Urgent Care following a renovation mishap ( rusty nail..my hand.. not good..)
We were given a short list of doctors actually accepting new patients ( it was in the 90’s) and today we continue
a wonderful relationship with our family doctor in Waterloo.
Our doc actually fits us in.   If one of the kid’s is not well - fever.. or stuff dripping out of the ear.. or if I’m having throat trouble… we’re in that day..
That service is pretty hard to find these days.. and I dread the day he announces his retirement. 
We really will be lost without him… and Pat who takes our calls and manages to always fit us in.
We take for granted this type of a service on the healthy days at our place even with one our son’s complex medical stuff.. we have the comfort of knowing our doctors
are around locally - they know us and will take our calls.. and it’s also comforting to know that Sick Kids is an hour down the 401.
But I still worry that one day we will be sitting in the local E-R like so many other families do…..waiting for hours and hours to get help.     
Let’s hope our freshly re-elected MPP’s can improve this before another four year term runs out.

lisa

I know!  It’s mid-October for crying out loud.. yet everywhere I look it’s Christmas!
We had a story this morning that retailers are really pushing the holiday button this year… promoting Christmas and the whole December holiday season.. earlier than ever before.
A retail expert says this holiday shopping season is getting pushed on us earlier and earlier every year..but he expects many shoppers to hold onto their hard earned cash until the last minute.

I was at a big box-type warehouse store in Kitchener yesterday.. that place has had artificial Christmas trees set up and lit up for well over a month now… the trees are set up right next to the Halloween candy display.
Go figure.

Check out the flyers today tucked into the local newspaper.. the front page of an area hardware store chain has Christmas lights on the front page.. the next two full pages are holiday decorations - we’re talking Santa for the front lawn,  and Angels for the tree.

We’ve just come off a record breaking weather weekend
Oktoberfest is in full swing.. and I haven’t even finished putting the Martha-like touches of autumn decorating into full swing at our place.  
At least let me pull out the spiders and jack-o’-lanterns first…

lisa

The 39th edition of Oktoberfest kicks off today…. This will be my 17th year and I never tire of Onkel Hans, warm beer nuts and amazing food and the Thanksgiving  Day parade.

The gang here 570 News will be up bright and early tomorrow morning (Saturday) serving free breakfast to the crowd (usually about ten thousand) behind Waterloo City Hall.
The menu?  Pancakes and sausage cooked up by students at Conestoga College..
coffee and apple cider..this is not a weekend to count calories!

It’s a great chance to meet and catch up with listeners.   Please stop by and say hi. (You’ll find me by the food!)

Happy Thanksgiving and safe driving,

lisa

We have just over a week to go until the provincial election.
Business has already been brisk at the local advance polling stations.. and the candidate signs are all around the region.   Or are they?

To date… I haven’t had a phone call, a door knocker or even campaign literature dropped off at our place by any of the parties.
In fact… I haven’t seen an election sign staked out on any
neighbour’s lawn..

I’m lucky enough to be part of the newsroom where we are inundated with the info from early a.m. until night.
Our reporters are out covering the speeches..the appearances,  and 570 NEWS is part of the media panel at the debates like the one tonight in St Agatha covering Kitchener-Conestoga, and we have the party leaders  and local candidates stopping by for in-studio chats.

Do some research.. and make your vote count.

570 News and Rogers Televison will be there election night bringing you the latest numbers, the winners and losers…locally and province wide.

lisa