Many commuters, sick and tired of the endless gridlock on the 400 series of highways opted to pay the tolls and take the 407 ETR instead. And as a reward for your patronage the toll rates on the 407 ETR have gone up every year on February 1st for the last 4 years. And this year will be no exception. The 407 ETR, the only privately owned toll road in the province, has raised the peak rate price by more than 8 cents in the last 10 years. Just last year the peak rate price increase was 1.35 cents.

Motorists who use the 407 ETR will not be amused to know that the rate is increasing 9.4% on February 1st for cars, minivans, and SUVs, making the new peak rate price 19.5 cents per kilometer in the “regular zone” – from the 401 intersection in the west to the 404 junction in the east. In the “light zone” - the remainder of the highway from the QEW in Burlington to Highway
401 and from Highway 404 to Brock Road in Pickering – the peak rate price will be 19 cents per kilometer. The off-peak rate in both zones will be 18 cents per kilometer. The rates for single unit trucks will be 38.5 cents per kilometer and for 18-wheelers the rate will be 57.75 cents per kilometer. The big price break will be for transponder customers, who will be offered a 30 % discount on the transponder lease fee if they choose an annual transponder lease fee instead of a monthly fee.

Of course the party line is that the increases are so that the company can continue to add new lanes. What do you think? Is it road improvement or a cash grab?

On February 16, 2008 the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) will open the Sir Christopher Ondaatje South Asian Gallery to the public. Named after Sir Christopher Ondaatje for his donations to the museum, the gallery will showcase over 350 South Asian artifacts in a rotating exhibition for short periods of time. Multicultural Toronto, with its large South Asian community, is the perfect location to showcase amazing exhibit.

The exhibit will be organized into 9 separate areas, each representing a fabulous collection of South Asian religious objects and sculpture, decorative arts, arms and armour, and miniature paintings and textiles that hail from countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Tibet. The idea is to present the 5,000 year history of South Asian art as a series of stories. Visitors to the exhibit can visit any or all of the 9 areas in any order that pleases them. A few of the most coveted pieces of the collection are a rare 3rd century Buddhist reliquary with delicate gold and pearl ornamentation, a 12th century bronze statue of Shiva as the Lord of Dance, and a beautiful 18th century hand painted textile made for the export market.

Krishna is Hinduism’s most powerful divinity. Therefore, it’s only fitting that the first rotating exhibition will be “Playful Krishna” featuring 40 artifacts, including the recently acquired treasure of a “picchvai” which is a painting on cloth depicting the pilgrimage route to sites sacred to Krishna’s life. Each of the sections is as diverse as the time periods and the cultures themselves – “Material Remains”, “Visualizing Divinity”, “Passage to Enlightenment”, “Courtly Culture”, “Cultural Exchange”, “Home and the World” are your windows into this unique cultural experience.

For more information follow the link below.
www.rom.on.ca/exhibitions/wculture/southasia.php

The holidays are my favorite time of year. And sure, I love to give and receive presents, but my favorite thing about the holidays is simply spending time with my family over great food. I love the smell of a turkey roasting, apple cider brewing, and holiday cookies baking in the oven.

There’s really no better place to gather the family together than in the kitchen. Kids especially love to help out with the holiday cooking, and there’s nothing kids like more than a cookie (or two or three!). So get your kids in the kitchen with some of these great holiday cookie recipes.

Mini Peanut Butter Cup Tarts

These great and easy-to-make cookies are a terrific way to use up some leftover Halloween candy. They use mini Reese’s peanut butter cups together with a peanut butter cookie dough to shape pretty (and tasty) mini peanut butter chocolate tarts. You can also use prepackaged dough to make these even easier.

Ingredients:

36 miniature Reese’s cups, unwrapped

1/2 C. creamy peanut butter

1/2 C. butter, softened

1/2 C. sugar

1/2 C. brown sugar, packed

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/4 C. all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

+A set of miniature muffin pans

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a mixing bowl, beat together the peanut butter, butter, and both sugars with electric mixer until fluffy. Add in the vanilla, egg, flour, salt, and baking soda. Mix well with a wooden spoon.

Shape dough into balls about one inch in diameter. Place one ball in each miniature muffin tin. (No muffin papers needed.)

Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes. After removing from oven, immediately press one of the unwrapped peanut butter cups into middle of each peanut butter cookie.

After placing the Reeses cups in all of the cookies, place the muffin pan back into the oven for approximately 30 seconds to one minute to melt the chocolate slightly and soften the hard edges of the peanut butter cups. This helps them to appear more like a real chocolate tart.

Allow the cookies to cool completely before removing them from the pan. Recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Cake Mix Cookies: Easier than Pie

These are easy Christmas cookies that are a lot of fun to make. The finished cookie is soft and wonderful, and there’s no end to the combinations of flavors you can make. They’re simple enough to allow the kids to help. Simply buy the cake mix of your choice and any add-ins you want to use. This is a great way to let your kids get creative– they can make up their favorite flavor combinations and see how they turn out. Ever tried Strawberry with Jelly Bean cookies??

Ingredients:

1 (18 oz.) package of your choice of cake mix (not with pudding)

2 lg. eggs

1/2 C. shortening

1 tbsp. water

1/2 C. chopped nuts, dried fruit, or chocolate chips (or other ad-ins of your choice)

powdered sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Using a wooden spoon or an electric mixer, combine all the ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Chill the dough in the refrigerator 30 minutes.

Shape dough into 1″ balls. If desired, roll in powdered sugar at this time. Bake cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper for about 10-12 minutes, til set.

Recipe makes about 3 to 4 dozen cookies.

If you have always dreamed of sending your son to Upper Canada College – the prestigious all-boys school in Forest Hill - but the $24,000 tuition fee for an elementary student made your dream unattainable, there may now be a possibility of entrance for your son. There is currently a student body of 1,130 students, with a mere 7% on some type of scholarship program. And these programs are not available until the 7^th grade. In an effort to open up UCC to a more diverse student body, they are embarking on a multi-million fundraising campaign in the hopes of being able to fund 25% its students.

UCC has always had the reputation of being an elite institution and trying to shed its elitist image will take some work. Working on the US standard where more than 20% of students receive financial aid, UCC will have its work cut out for it. Also in the plan is to phase out the boarding school in response to the continent-wide decline in boarding school enrolment. UCC hopes to appeal to a diverse group of students from all walks of life and different socioeconomic backgrounds. Would you know be interested in sending your son to UCC now that financial aid was going to be available? Or do you find it still too elitist?

Blood, gore, murder, and mayhem – what fun! The Toronto After Dark Film Festival is THE EVENT of the season for horror film aficionados. From October 19 – 25 horror, science fiction, fantasy, and animation feature films and short films will be premiered.

You must be 18 years of age or older to attend. Advance tickets are now on sale. The main screening venue is the Bloor Cinema located at 506 Bloor Street West and the venue for the horror shorts is the Innis Town Hall Theatre located at 2 Sussex Avenue. Tickets are going fast.

One of the highlights of the festival is the official Toronto Zombie Walk. Dress up like a zombie, walk the walk, have some food and drinks, and then you will have the absolute pleasure of attending the screening of 2 new zombie films. For all the Zombie Walk details follow the link below.

http://www.torontozombiewalk.ca/index.html

For all of the details on the films, parties, and the Zombie Walk follow the link below.

http://www.torontoafterdark.com/

First came the decision to close the community centres on Mondays until January 2008 to save money. Then the mayor changed his mind and decided to open the community centres on Mondays – but only to groups with permits that were paying for the use of the centres. Now the decision to close the community centres fully or partially has been totally reversed and the community centres will be opened on Mondays again starting on October 15^th. But, there will be a decreased amount of programming available. Please make sure that you check with your local community centre to confirm that your programs will be running.

The next time that someone tells you that you can’t fight city hall tell them that they are absolutely wrong. The only reason that the community centres are being reopened is due to the total outrage of the public and the pressure brought to bear on the mayor and city council. Bravo Toronto!

One man’s junk is another man’s treasure. Hunting for bargains at garage sales is a national pastime. Browsers on Hastings Avenue were in for quite an experience when they looked at the goodies that Randy Gulliver was selling – not out front as you would expect, but in the backyard.

Randy Gulliver is the director and co-producer of “Talk Sex With Sue Johanson” and his garage sale was strictly for adults only. The items for sale were all things that the show is sent every year. Apparently there was a great assortment of sex toys, body crayons, and Kama Sutra postcards. All of the proceeds are going to AIDS research, as they were last year when $400.00 was donated. If you hear of any interesting garage sales, please let us know and we’ll make sure to post the info.

Do you really care who picks up your garbage as long as it’s picked up? It is estimated that privatizing garbage collection in Toronto could save anywhere from 10 – 30 million dollars. In the 6 municipalities surrounding Toronto 100% of garbage collection is contracted out as compared with Toronto that only contracts out 20%. Using city workers for garbage pickup and disposal is costing us a lot more money than it needs to because our garbage collection and disposal workers are public sector, unionized employees. And the cost savings could be massive if the city was to sell off all or part of its fleet of garbage trucks and/or waste collection equipment. The reality is that private sector waste companies are able to deliver the same service for approximately 20% less than the public sector.

Why isn’t Toronto in step with other municipalities when it comes to garbage collection? Why are we constantly looking to cut services and raise taxes instead of cutting costs?  Would you be in favour of contracting out Toronto’s garbage collection and disposal services?

I’d like to tell you about a 7,500 square foot facility that includes a 4,000 square foot play area, athletic equipment, splash pools, non-skid athletic flooring, and soft beds for naps. This centre also has a spa onsite, training centre, boutique, and bakery. If I asked you to guess at what type of facility this is, what would you say? A spa/retreat of some sort? A daycare centre? A boarding school? What would you say if I told you that this is a fitness and spa centre for dogs?

I’m not making a joke. This is none other than the UrbanDog Fitness + Spa located at 37 Parliament Street. The UrbanDog opened in 2003 and their business has grown exponentially from just 2 clients to about 50 dogs every day. And you just can’t bring your pet to the UrbanDog. There is a screening process to access your dog’s suitability that involves a telephone interview and temperament screening. Approximately 20% of applicants are not admitted.

I just can’t get my head wrapped around doggie daycare used 5 days a week as one would use a child daycare facility. Places like the UrbanDog are great for the odd day here and there, but as a regular daycare, I just don’t get it. What do you think? Do you have a pet in 5 days/week daycare?

Follow the link below for all of the information that you and your pampered pooch will need.

http://www.urbandog.ca/index1.htm

Roots, ever the trendsetter, can now boast that it has Toronto’s first interactive window display at their 100 Bloor St. West location. iGotcha Media was the creator of this innovation in digital signage. This is a collaborative effort with Real World Communications managing the installation and maintenance of the Roots application.

In order to create this interactive window display, a 60-inch image is projected onto an interactive touch foil that is attached to the inside of the window. It is the foil that allows you to interface with the screen by touching the outside of the window. Touching the window gives you access to a menu of interactive options. When the interactive window display is not engaged, promotional videos are shown.

Interactivity is the key to engaging customers these days. Giving customers the ability to browse the merchandise and to make purchases from the store window 24/7 has the potential to capture the imagination of shoppers and to capture the impulse shopper. I’ll be interested to see the revenue generation figures of the interactive window display. Have you tried it yet? If so, did you buy anything?