RIP Tree

We moved into this house in 1998. The best part was the awesome tree on the front lawn. It was tall, perfect for climbing, green from April until October and blocked the direct view of our living room from the street.

Now. Living in Newfoundland took its toll on the poor tree. In 2000, we had a record snowfall of a quadrillion centimeters of snow and ice. When everything melted by mid-June, our poor tree had cracked in half. Like literally, split down the middle as if Zeus himself struck it with a bolt of lightning.

However, Dad had a plan (as all dads do) and pulled it back together with a piece of string. Apparently string and duct tape is all you need to fix anything. Believe it or not, the string actually worked and the tree survived and for the record, the string is now part of the tree. Legit.

Skip ahead ten years to Fall of 2010. Newfoundland was struck by Hurricane Igor. Igor was not kind to us. Floods everywhere, hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, roads washed out leaving complete towns isolated from any aid and power outages for days. (4 in our case.)

The winds ripped up so many trees. It was sad to drive home and see trees that were probably close to a hundred years old toppled over and their roots torn from the ground. However, our tree was still standing the next morning. Granted, there were a few moments where we thought all was lost, but it stood strong. It could also have something to do with the extensive roots that cause a problem anytime we try and renovate our front lawn. We thought that we had won the battle, that our tree was indestructible.

Not so much.

That picture was taken today. It's July. There should be more than 12 leaves on a tree on July 23rd. Our tree is dead. In fact, it was dead last September, but we only realized the true damage recently when all of the neighbor's trees actually looked like, well, trees.

By next week, the tree will be gone. There will be a gaping hole in the front yard and even though I don't live here anymore, I'm trying to convince my parents to plant a cute maple tree. However, for all of the above weather reasons, it might be a waste of time if the first windstorm cracks it in two.

Poor Tree.

A Homage to Fred and George Weasley

**Spoilers ahead. You've been warned**

As the famous Harry Potter series comes to an end with the release of the final movie, most of us fans are pretty well in denial that there is no more "Potter-mania" to look forward to.

So like many others, I'm re-reading the entire series to prolong that denial.

However, after just finishing the first book, I realized that the characters of Fred and George have always been amazingly funny. I haven't read the books in a long time and the movies never really did the twins justice until the fourth installment ("Feet off the table!") so I was trapped into thinking that it wasn't until later that they were actually developed as being the comic relief in an otherwise dark story.

No. They are hilarious from the start.

And the best part is, you know people who are JUST LIKE Fred and George. They may not be in your close circle of friends, but there is most likely someone in your life whose mischief never fails to put a smile on your face.

But I think they are also a lot more than just the comic relief. I think that they represent exactly what people want to do, but don't have the courage to do so, like stand out in a crowd while singing the school song, or throw fireworks and set a dragon on their crazy-ass teacher. It just turns out that a lot of the time, these things are funny.

In the last book, tragedy strikes at the heart with the injury of George and the death of Fred. The outlook of the battle hits rock bottom when the trio find their friend dead. Readers everywhere sobbed quietly into pillows at 5:00am as they may as well have lost their own best friend. You cry for the loss of humour. You cry for the loss of George's second half. You definitely cry for the loss of the Weasley's son. It is shortly after this that the plan of actions change to become more selfless and risky which then resulted in the win over the dark wizards. After so much loss (Fred and others of course), what else is there left to lose?

I think the best part of the series is that while the main character is the focus of the story, J.K. Rowling did a damn good job of making so many people into heroes. Fred and George Weasley definitely fit the bill. We love them, and will continue to laugh at their antics every time we pick up the books.

Why Crayons are Awesome

I recently rediscovered the magic of crayons. As a kid, I always had a box of crayons at my disposal and would look forward to the 96 pack I would get every Christmas in my stocking. Let's be honest. There are very few people in the western world who experience childhood without the influence of crayola crayons.

Here's why they are awesome:

So many colours!

I'm pretty sure that at some point the marketing team began making up their own colour pallets because there are some funky looking greens in those boxes. Regardless. No matter what you were trying to colour, there was always a crayon that matched it.

Leonardo DaVinci used crayons.

That's right. The guy who painted some of the world's most famous and iconic works of art had a hand in the development of our modern crayon.

They smell.

I'm not talking about the scented ones. I'm talking about the honest-to-god smell of crayons. I'm pretty sure that if childhood had a smell, it would be this one and the smell of Johnson's baby shampoo. In fact, in a study done by Yale, crayons ranked 18/20 for the most recognizable smells.

The colours of pastels without the mess.

I love saturated colours, but nothing irritates me more than the mess pastels leave on your hands. Enter the crayon - all the colours, 0.5% of the mess. Plus they don't wear down so fast.

Crayola is multicultural!

In 1992, Crayola introduced 16 new colours that represented various skin tones, giving kids choices beyond "peach" and "brown".

Crayons are amazingly versatile.

Whether you are simply colouring in your Disney Princess colouring book, or creating a masterpiece, you can use crayons to make it work. With all the different colour options and the various shading techniques you can use, crayons are an excellent medium for blending colours.

The built in sharpener.

Dear god. What an invention. There was nothing worse as a kid than having your crayons become stumpy and pretty well unusable for fine detail work (AKA hands). Enter the crayon sharpener. This is potentially one of the best revolutions in the world. So simple, yet genius. It prologned the life of the box of crayons that much further. Well, at least until your 3 year old brother got a hold of them and snapped them all in half.

Broken crayons are still crayons.

How many things can you say that about. If I break my laptop in two, it no longer functions as a laptop. If you snap a crayon in half, it it not only still usable as a crayon, but has now reproduced by means similar to mitosis. It also makes sharing really easy :)

They're a good way to relieve stress.

People say that the best way to relieve stress is to do something with a repetitive action that directly results into a finished product. Millions of people could probably throw away their heart medications if they simply picked up a 64 pack of crayons and colouring book (Please don't do that. It's pretty likely that crayons do not actually cure heart disease...). Doing something simple gives a sense of accomplishment, at least for a little while and tends to make you think that you're not wasting your life on something that you'll never be able to complete because you were too dumb to set a realistic goal for yourself.

They are so much fun.

It doesn't matter what the finished product turns out like because using crayons makes you think back to simpler times. You can sketch, colour, blend and draw with them, tear it out and stick it on the fridge to show off just how awesome they actually are.

Here's the challenge: Go buy a pack of crayons (8 pack or 96 pack. Doesn't matter). Print off some colouring sheets. Sit down and watch your favorite childhood movie with a glass of milk and some cookies while colouring. Do this alone, with your boyfriend, with your best friend or with your kids. It doesn't matter. You will have a great time.