Cookstown Manufacturers' Outlet Mall

I took a much needed day off today. I got to sleep in but only snagged 7h of sleep. I ended up driving my sis to the subway and mom to Cookstown Manufacturers' Outlet Mall.

Before you correct me, let me just tell you that my mom told me to go up 404 to get to Cookstown. I'm like OK. I didn't really know where it was or cared.

We're driving up North and my mom starts to think, why is it so far? Yes, we were on the wrong highway. We were suppose to take the 400. We exited from road and drove West. The roads were kept fairly well considering we were in the middle of nowhere. It was so silly to drive small streets up there. I think I need a new navigator.

We left home at 2:30pm and we finally got there after some time:

HAHA! OK it didn't take us until night fall to get there. I took this picture after we finished shopping. We got there around 4 something.

It's a bit larger than I just thought:

I got some clothes for myself and my mom bought dinnerware. A productive trip :)

Short Funny Comics

I use to read the Toronto Star and the Toronto Sun on Saturdays for their weekend comics. But after a while the material all seems to be rehashes. Garfield makes fun of Jon or wants to sleep, Charlie is always the loser in Peanuts, and I have little or no idea what Ziggy does in his comic.

With the net, you can read what you want and easily read the old comics to missed. There is this one comic that is sometimes crude but a good laugh, the Perry Bible Fellowship by Nicholas Gurewitch

Here's a sample from a while back:

I think he updates it once every two weeks but I'm not 100% sure.

Merry Christmas

I hope Christmas has a special meaning to you. Although I did not spend Christmas the way I had originally planned, it still turned out positive in the end. Hope yours is enjoyable as well.

Always cherish what you have as you may not have it tomorrow.

Easton McDonald's

I love McDonald's Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets. I remember when McDonald's had a different special for each day of the week. Wednesday was McChicken special so we'd go almost every time since it was the office's favorite sandwich.

After 3 years, my office friends are not ones into McDonald's. Eating healthy seems to be near the top of their heads - yet Wendy's and Pizza Hut are acceptable to them.

Here is the closest McDonald's to our hotel - the Easton Town Center McDonald's. It is the second largest restaurant in the US and the first McDonald's of its kind.

It features:

an interactive, miniature drive-thru for kids

a karaoke booth for customers to record CDs

an adults Area with living-room style furniture and high-back booths

and a merchandise area where customers can purchase McDonald's apparel and souvenirs

As an added bonus, the front counter is designed to resemble the original 1950s McDonald's.

Some of you might not think McDonald's is very appetizing based on some certain documentary or rumours. Let's put some of them to rest.

Rumour: 100% Beef is actually a company called "100% Beef" and doesn't tell you anything about the beef

Truth:False. All beef from McDonald's has been approved by the US Department of Agriculture. Most of its beef is from the USA but a small portion is imported from New Zealand and Australia for lean meat. US mainly feeds cattle grain while New Zealand and Australia are grass-fed.

Rumour: Fries are fried using beef tallow

Truth: True, but if they do now, not for long. Traditionally, McDonald's indeed uses beef tallow to make french fries. However, McDonald's is currently switching to using vegetable oil instead.

T&T Supermarkets

If you're Chinese and living in Toronto I'm sure you've heard of this supermarket chain, T&T. They have the most fresh and yummy tasting bread I know - just look at them:

What you may not know is where the name T&T came from. According to the T&T web site, the first "T" stands for Tawa Supermarket Inc., a California based Asian supermarket chain of 21 stores with over 2,000 employees. The second "T" represents Uni-President Enterprises Corp., a public company and one of the top 10 conglomerates in Taiwan. The Chinese name of Uni-President is pronounced "Tung Yee".

I didn't know that. But it does explain where T&T gets so much money to open such big stores in such a short amount of time.

Mess of Christmas shopping

After you've spun a number of times around the parking lot to find a parking, you have to bare the crazy crowds in the mall. That's what we've grown accustomed to during the Christmas shopping period.

This is a picture I took from Walmart:

This picture was taken a couple months ago and it's likely what you'll be experiencing these days. The crowds and crazy parking is one of my main annoyances and reasons to avoid shopping around this time of the year. But if you're a weekend Walmart shopper, I'm sure you're all too familiar with the environment.

IMO - Independent Mobile

It's hard choosing the right phone yet alone carrier in the United States (US). In the US, not all carriers offer the same level of coverage or handset selection throughout the country. You could have strong reception in New York City with Verizon and weak Cingular reception yet in San Francisco situation could be reversed with Cingular better than Verizon. After selecting your carrier you have to choose a phone from the 8+ phones offered by a carrier. Not all phone offer the same level of reception and functionality - that's why they're priced differently.

Welcome to IMO.

IMO hopes to make this an easier process by providing availability to all the major carriers along with knowledgeful staff. Although they only have one store in Columbus, Ohio, they're expanding into Boston real soon.

I walked into their Columbus store and had a chance to talk to their staff. They were very friendly, non-pushy, didn't work on commission, and actually liked phones. I heard from one staff member that she had to learn all about phones before starting at her position while another was very keen about phones even before her employment at IMO. At the back of the store is a waiting area lined with various mobile phone magazines and a children pay area while the grown ups talk about wireless plans.

I walked away feeling it was a very positive environment and has definitely swayed me a little away from the corporate stores.