be a sweetheart!

So, it came to my attention that not all things sweet are tasty.

I was watching a popular show that had an entire chocolate room done by Godiva (yummmo!) and I've always wondered where on earth their chocolate came from because I know there is no cacao trees in Belgium, or Europe for that matter. Just curiosity. Color me surprised (not quite) when I found out most of the high end chocolate is from the birthplace of the cacao bean, the Americas, and the bulk of chocolate, 50-70% is from West Africa (think the more popular, cheaper, American brands). No surprise there. Of course, in the typical way of the world, most farmers of cacao (six major providers - Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, and Cameroon) don't receive anything near a fair price for their goods, many of the workers are underage - don't do it to the children, pleeeease :(, some work in slave-like conditions, and most have never tasted chocolate.

Now I have little to no money but I think that supporting fair trade vendors is more important than buying my favorite Hershey bar, or Mars bar (Milky Way *long sigh*), or Nestle product (me love some Milo). Maybe when I see the prices of Whole Foods chocolate I'll eat less. Good idea all around. Soon, I'll be broke trying to eat and dress fair (yes, I am going to go there one day *sigh*). I know we all can't stop buying cheaper, more affordable food or clothing but we can make small changes where we can afford to...so next time you have some chocolate, try to make it as sweet as possible by supporting free-trade chocolatier. Be a sweet tooth with a heart.

Read more... and more

Of course I spent some time making sure that Catch chocolate was fair trade...click here for that info

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"We must become the change we want to see." Mahatma Gandhi

"Every mickle mek a muckle." Jamaican saying.
Translated: every good effort, no matter how minor, can amount to something meaningful.

surprises I like...

...catch chocolate and a pink water bottle to keep me on track with my H2O drinking. From a thoughtful friend & sister. Love u Renz.

...pink polka dots in my email inbox. See my new title background? Thanks Salfrico :)

accomplished!

So Thurs before last, I attempted Sudoku for the first time, and failed. Then last Thurs, I was determined to try again. After 3 hours I was 65% there. So Sat I decided to finish up & I did it! These things make my day...I'm a simple girl.

this week in review

-- In the news--

Numero uno - Vancouver winter Olympics. I am an Olympic gal, winter or summer. So I've been loving it. The beginning was sad with the death of Luge athlete, Nodar Kumaritashvili. Is there a reason those walls are so low? So sad. However, there are inspirational stories a plenty. The one of the Chinese pair figure skating coach, Yan Bin, got my attention in particular. Can you imagine not recognizing your own child because you'd been away so long working to make gold medalist skaters for your country? I hope he can retire soon. Who knew speed skating, biathlons, alpine skiing, and figure skating could capture my attention so fully? I'm proud of all the winners :) Does anyone know how the lone Jamaican skier did?

Toyota blues - They're calling it the Great Recall. O boy o boy! To think, the Camry for the past 2 or 3 years has been my dream. I mean, since I have to drive something before I get my Mercedes, and I need something sensible, why not? I always thought they were the most cost effective choice (most ppl consider Toyota, Nissan, & Honda to be somewhat comparable). Some how I went with the Accord instead and now I'm glad I did. I cannot keep track of all the models being recalled, or all the reasons. But I do know the U.S. regulators were slack on their standards during testing, that Toyota has had to (temporarily) close plants, and that I won't be in one any time soon. Have you noticed how Hyundai advertisement has been crowding TV? lol, them, Mercedes, Audi, and US manufacturers are taking advantage big time. I just Googled, and I guess I'm not the only one who noticed - click here.

Tiger's back - Am I the only person who doesn't care? I don't want to see any pics of him or hear about his return to golf. I guess golf fans missed him, women were mad at him, and yes, he may have some issues. Truth be told, I never really liked his public persona. He's done nothing to endear himself to me recently so I still don't care. He has LOTS of issues but who doesn't? If his wife is as gangsta as she's been made up to be, I'm glad of it, and she should keep the golf club elevated over his head until all's clear.

Clearly there's someone madder than I was yesterday. It's Joe Stack. Now he is some hero. All I have to say is, I'm glad I wasn't in that building, I'm sorry for all who were victims of his attack, and I'm relieved there werer't more casualties (though even 2 is already too much). He can be no hero of mine, flying planes into buildings of people working hard to survive what he was too coward to deal with. Real life. The rest of us are still here.

Give me free! Circus zebra breaks free and causes traffic in Atlanta. He prolly needed to go "find" himself...I mean, he doesn't even know if he's white with black stripes or black with white stripes! Yes ppl, I love me some Madagascar.

-- Funnies --

Quote of the week "Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men with the hope they will change. Invaribly they are both disappointed." Albert Einstein. Sooooo funny :)

-- Shumpy --

Mi back mi back mi back mi %#@ back! (& no, I don't know much more of the song lol) Well, I decided to add another class to my gym routine and it knocked me out of the gym all week. It has nothing on kickboxing of course but I must say I did one of those funky jazz dance moves wrong and now my hip is all out of whack. Well I'm back on Monday cause I can practically hear the fat cells rejoicing...

Biostats - I literally don't want to talk about it. I'm hoping if I keep my head down and close my eyes, my professor will forget I'm in the class :(

For those of us with undiagnosed seasonal affective disorder we are supposedly gonna have sunshine this weekend so no complaining at the moment. But with last week's storm, and Tuesdays mess, I'd just about had it! Supposed to see more snow showers Mon eve. Goody goody gum drops *smirk*

Counting my blessings! They finally sent my updated transit card so now I can purchase my bus passes via my pretax dollars that have been chillin' in my account while I shelled out of my pay check to get into work all Jan and most of Feb. Also, March is on the way, which means April is on the way, which means warmth, more living space (I'm moving!), and hopefully other great things.

Bad hair days have been numerous. I needed a relaxer like 2 weeks ago. But instead here I am going 10 weeks without one. I watched Good Hair, Chris Rock's documentary on black women's hair. It kinda sucked. I looked forward to it sooo much but that whole hair show segment ruined it for me. I don't know much about southern hair culture but I'd have done well without that. The other parts weren't so bad. I loved the barber/beauty shop talk parts the best. I'm still keeping my creamy crack, thank you very much. When I choose to give it up, I'm doing locs.

mail rage

It just took me over 45 minutes to mail a single solitary letter from Washington Heights, NY. Right there on 165th and Audubon.

First of all, they open at 7 am but start window services at 9 am. Smart. Then the postal workers who are to conduct window services don't come in until 9! So at 9am the only window that has started business is the passport window. Then they're bickering and complaining to their boss about I don't know what. I mean crying first thing in the morning kind of anger. So after the workers sort out their issues, they SLOWLY starting getting the till and stuff they need to start working. Great. Late, disgruntled, unproductive workers. I got there early (before 9 because I didn't realize there were half open post offices around), was third in line and even though they had 3 people working at the mail related windows, it took 20 minutes from the time they finally started working to mail my letter. WOOOSAHHHH. It would be remiss of me not to mention that the guy who dealt with me was rather friendly. I could have punched the smile off his face at that point though.

I am NEVER going back to this post office. Never. Did I mention the bulletproof glass between the customers and the workers? One heck of a contraption which is clearly telling me to stay away. Hint taken.
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Want to see what others think of this place? Click here.

how squeezable!

Thanks Vicky for the photo!
Devin, my new God-baby this weekend at his Christening dinner

hey mary j blige...

...can I have 15 minutes alone with your closet? I'll only take what I can carry.

Recently I've been noticing that Ms. Blige has been looking stunning. My true loves in both photos are the necklaces *swoon*

Photos from YBF (here and here)