News Bulletins From The Land of Stupid

So yesterday the vacationing Christine and I went to a movie and did some shopping while the lad was in daycare. We bought socks and other silly things, looked in stores and had lunch before the movie.

We were both in a "I dunno, what do you wanna eat" mood, so we wound up having Burger King veggie burgers. While in line to order we saw/heard teh following: an older couple got their change back. They looked at the Canadian money in shock and near disgust and asked "what's this?" The nice cashier lady said "your change". They asked if they could have change in USD. Now, if I asked this in the US, even in Burlington or one of the other cities near the Canadian border they would laugh their asses off at the mere idea that I would ask this. Frankly, the idea would never even occur to me, but their attitude and body language suggested "Imagine the gall, a soverign nation thinking that it can give us change in the monetary devices of their choosing!!!" Anyway, the manager comes along, and in the manner of polite managers everywhere, gets them some change. It was 11 something in Canadian, so they got $10 back. I'm not sure of the exact exchange rate, but that seems about right to me. The woman of the couple asked "what's this?" again. The manager said, "umm.. your change? It takes more Canadian to get less American because American is worth more."

When I got to the cash I asked for my change in Euros.

Oh, the movie was good, I highly recomend Just Like Heaven. It won't win awards, but it was nice and entertaining.

On the way home we were walking up a street near ours and heard crying. If you are a parent you have built in radar for little kid crying, so we looked around and there was a stroller sitting just off the sidewalk on the front path of a house with a sub-2 year old kid in it. We went over to see if the kid was ok and were both looking around for a parent. At this point a guy opened the front door of the house and came out, carrying a tool box. We asked him it the child was his, he said no. We asked him if there was a parent inside, and he said that mb in the upstair appartment. At this point a woman stuck her head over the upstairs balcony and said "oh, is she crying?". WHICH WAS NOT AT ALL THE FUCKING POINT.

She came down and we left. As we walked away I asked Christine "why didn't I just call the police?" And I mean this seriously, in what way is that not reasonable? If you abandon your kid in a car the police come, if you put your little kid out the front door the police will pick them up, how was this situation any different? I regret that I'm so passive agressive that I didn't even tell the woman off, but I was so shocked and confused as to what to do that I didn't do anything.