Impaired drivers in Ontario will be facing harsher penalties beginning tomorrow.

Previously, drivers with a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) between 0.05 and 0.08 had their license suspended for only 12 hours – about the same amount of time it would probably take you to sleep off the night’s festivities.

Starting May 1st however, if you blow a 0.5 or higher – you could be facing some pretty hefty penalties.

Here’s a breakdown of the new legislation:
 

 
Yikes! According to The Original Blood Alcohol Calculator, if I have 2 glasses of wine with dinner (assuming dinner is roughly 1 1/2 hours long), my BAC will be 0.04 - and dangerously close to the first level offense.

Take note of this, too: if you get nabbed by Police, there’s nothing you can do; A lawyer won’t be able to stop your license from being suspended, and each suspension will be recorded. 

According to a survey conducted by Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators just 4 years ago, only half of the respondents knew their province had a lower alcohol limit at which point police can suspend driving privileges. Only 6% of respondants actually knew what the limit was. 

The new changes to the impaired driving law in Ontario have been advertised, marketed, and advertised again over the past few months. I can’t drive down the 401 without seeing a glaring digital sign announcing “new legislation” take effect May 1.

The Canadian Law remains the same, however - if you blow over 0.08, you’ll be facing criminal charges and penalties.

Have you seen the new Excel commercials - the one where a really cute doughnut, coffee, and onion follow a guy around?

Awh!

They can follow me around any day - seriously! If adorable characters like this really followed you around after you ate something, I’d never chew gum again!

I think Wrigley’s should put these cuties on their packaging - it might be enough to convince me to try Excel instead of my standard Dentyne Ice!

So, I ordered some Chinese food tonight (and for what it’s worth, it was delicious!). Sweet & Sour Chicken Balls, General Tso Chicken, Hot & Sour Soup, and some Veggie Lo Mein.  The Lo Mein, of course, had Broccoli in it (one of my favourites!) and I began to wonder how Broccoli grows. I mean, it’s a veggie, so it obviously grows in the ground - but as a bush? a tree? a vine? in the ground like carrots? A quick google later, and I had my answer:

"broccoli grows not on a tree, not a bush, but it is it's own plant"

(Thanks, Wiki Answers :)

Apparently, bunnies also love Broccoli as much as me:

Yummy!

The most interesting thing I learned however, had to be that the weird purple Broccoli actually grows that way. No, seriously:

I think the only veggie I like that's purple is eggplant.

How bizarre! It’s called “Purple Sprouting Broccoli”, and as you can see in the picture… just the top end (and the tastiest part, in my opinion) grows purple.

I wonder if it tastes the same as normal Broccoli?

I need this in my life.

Mother nature is letting winter have her last hurrah - joy.

It’s currently -1 outside and snowing… and I thought yesterday at 0 degrees with a snow/rain mix was bad! I actually had to scrape my car this morning.

So not cool.

It comes right as the Jays had their home opener last night as well (which, for the first time in quite a few years I missed - tear). I heard from quite a few people it was quite the gong-show, which makes missing it hurt that much more - plus, they WON! I am going to the game tonight (though as we all know, it won’t even be close to the opener… and the Skydome roof will be closed, thanks to all this snow.

I can’t wait for the weather to get warm again - hopefully this time it sticks around. Winter is only allowed to sneak back once a season. Take notes, Mother Nature, take notes.