Winter

I've seen a lot of desert pictures on some friends blogs as of late. Being that I'm not in the sand and sun, I thought that I'd share what winter in Ottawa is like at the moment.

1. Christmas tree hunting. We found one.


2. Antique shopping at the Christmas tree farm.


3. The radio said said everyone should stay home tomorrow. Too much snow.


4. See, Katherine picked a good looking tree.


5. Snow day afternoon means making gingerbread cookies. Thanks Kirstie! I helped too.


6. Notice the man (me) in the picture for scale. Yes, those snow piles were put there by hand, not machine, and they will get taller tomorrow.

I'm hungry.

In the grocery store the other day, I picked up a basket, and began shopping for a few things. I was moving through the produce section as I usually do. First, I look at the bananas. They're extremely green, so I don't buy any, then I go to the lettuce and it's really wet and wilted, so I don't pick any of that up either. No salad this week. Then, I head towards the zucchini and mushrooms. Two items that can't be bad in the produce department. Really, there's nothing that can be wrong with either of these. Have you ever heard of a bruised mushroom? I filled up a bag and as I was placing it in my basket, I noticed that there was a grocery list in the bottom of the basket. I was in a bit of a strange mood and thought that it might be great to ditch the things that were on my list and try shopping with somebody else's list for a change. Unfortunately, when I looked at the list it the following items listed: sandwich meat, coffee whitener, buns OR bread, and sugar. That was it. Hardly seemed worth a trip to the grocery store if you ask me. I probably would have just grabbed a jar of peanut butter, spread it on some saltines, and drank my coffee black. If you want to try shopping with somebody else's list, try mine out. I guarantee there's at least six dozen different meals that could be made with a combination of the following ingredients + anything you have lying around.

Please sir

What the hell is going on? So, I'm on this world wide interweb thing - you know the one, it's a series of tubes that sends information from one end to the other. I went to click on my favorite blog site Neurosparks and lo and behold the damned thing has picked up and left the internet. Now, I don't know where it is, it seems to be missing. If it's not on the interweb, then it must be floating around aimlessly. I feel terrible. Was it me? Did I not comment frequently enough? I'll be better, I'll read more frequently and I'll try to write more too. Please sir I want it back and I'm not concerned about the medium. If you want to print it out and send out flyers via plane drop, I'll understand. Listen, we ripped up the cheque for the car. Please neurosparks, come back.

Ottawa Bluesfest

It's a sad thing that an issue between 'standers' and 'sitters' has taken over the spotlight with regards to the happenings at this festival. A festival is supposed to be a celebration and how one chooses to celebrate should certainly be a matter of choice, but a little bit of courtesy to your neighbours goes a long way. When I've listened to the media coverage for a short period every morning on the radio, this issue has been forefront, and the part has been missing is the celebration of the music, the art, and the camaraderie that can quickly develop between festival goers who are enjoying great music. There are a great deal of positives that aren't getting out there. I've had numerous conversations with people that I would have never met as we looked on at the musicians in admiration. There are also many other issues associated with such a large event.

I haven't heard anything in the media about: pot smoking, getting excessively drunk and spending 30 min. groping one's girlfriend, chatting loudly all the way through a concert, or smoking a pipe and blowing the smoke directly in your neighbours face. These are all things that I've witnessed at this years bluesfest and they are certainly things that I could do without, but I accept that when you stick a whole bunch of people in big pen, there is bound to be differences of opinion about what is good festival etiquette. Other people just don't seem to care about the enjoyment of others as long as their own enjoyment isn't compromised. In my eyes, this is where the problem lies.

When I was a young boy, my mother taught me what her mother taught her. That is, that you should do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It's a simple bit of wisdom that I think encapsulates the notion of common courtesy. I would suggest that in the absence of many peoples mother at the festival, maybe the festival could adopt a 'festival mother' or better yet a 'festival grandmother' to remind people of these things before some of the events that are expected to be a little crazy. I'm sure the White Stripes wouldn't mind.

As it is now, I'm very much enjoying the festival,

Does she cash the cheque?

A couple of years ago this girl I know who happens to also be my wife, sold a car to a friend of ours for sum of $100. This particular car, which happened to be a dodge colt that was actually an imported Mitsubishi with an American badge on it, had been a very trustworthy steed. In all the years that this girl owned the car she nary had to sink any money into it to keep it operating. There was a bit of an oil leak, but really nothing mechanically wrong considering the paltry price of the vehicle. I believe that the sale of the car was on an 'as is' basis, as are all used car sales in Alberta.

Shortly after the transaction had taken place this friend took the car and set off on a journey that would be greater than 1000 kilometers. When he had travelled for approximately 30 km the timing belt snapped and he was left stranded on a remote stretch of highway near a small town called Vulcan. It cost our dear friend many hours on the side of the road while he changed out the belt and prayed that greater damage had not been done to the internal workings of the vehicle. In the end, the belt was changed and our friend made it back onto the road cursing the girl who neglected the routine maintenance which calls for the belt to be changed every hundred thousand kilometers (car was at 300k and its possible the belt had never been changed). He made it safe and sound to his destination that was over 1000km away and I believe the car is now waiting for its owner to return. Anyhow, I'm in no place to speak about the details of this operation. There are others much better equipped to tell that story than I.

The point of my banter is this: today while searching for a stash of American dollars that seems to have disappeared this girl came across a cheque dated April 27, 2005. The memo line says 'car'.

Does she cash the cheque?

First day of work

I started a new position yesterday. Still same place but a different department. Here's the synopsis of what I'll be doing. My head hurts. And yes, I am as confused as you are about the scenario.

Snow Squalls

2 weeks ago we got in the car and drove to London, ON for some Easter goodness. We went down to spend some time with our friends Jodi and Kevan. It was great to get out of the city for a while. On this trip, I realized that the secondary highways in Ontario are far more scenic than the Four hundred series roads. On the way south, I wanted to take some back roads but the weather was like it might be dumping some snow, so decided to stay on the major roads. I thought they might have a better chance of staying ploughed.

We pulled in to London with snow squalls threatening to keep us holed up at Jodi's place for the entire time. They didn't really materialize, but we were able to put together a snowman...





with a moustache.




On the way back north, we took the four-o-one through Toronto and when we made it through the traffic jam, we turned onto highway 45 for a scenic back roads adventure. The landscape was really beautiful. We drove by some beautiful old farms that were nestled in between the drumlins. We stopped for a lunch in a little town called Hastings, where Aaron took us for a fine meal of fish and chips. Thanks again Aaron.

He said, "Maybe you could give me 5 dollars!"

When we moved, we decided not to bring Katherine's vacuum with us across the country. We didn't think it was worth the bother. It didn't really do the job that it was meant to do. The smallest task made that thing work very hard. When we left it behind, it wasn't really doing a very good job. I guess we thought that we would be able to find one and replace it no problem. I know that I had a bit of sticker shock when I found out how much (new) vacuum cleaners cost. They start at about $60 and go to over $2000 for the really deluxe models. I don't know what a $2000 vacuum cleaner would do - I suspect it might suck the carpet right off your floor. On the other end of the spectrum, I guess that the $60 model wouldn't do anything much at all. It would probably just make a lot of noise. Needless to say, we have been without a vacuum since the summer. Earlier this week, our dreams came true when I saw an ad in the online bargain finder Used Ottawa.

This is what was delivered to my door. It was missing one of the wheels, I guess it fell off during transport. The guy who dropped it off said, "Friend, tonight you get a deal. I lost a wheel when we moved it and so I'm going to give it to you for nothing". I asked if it works and he assured me that it did, then he said maybe I could give him $5 for gas. He was driving an F-150 and I could appreciate that the $5 would be needed. So, I handed over a fiver and took my new prize inside the house. I plugged it in and the floorboards almost came up. It's probably only 60 years old but it's still going strong. Tomorrow, the car is going to be very clean.

This is a picture of Katherine trying to vacuum the cat. She likes to do that. The cat ran away.

Surveillance

For a number of months now there's been something strange going on in my neighbourhood. It might not strike you as odd at first, but when you consider the weather north of the 49th parallel in January and February, you might also become suspicious. At different times of the day, there is a man who stands outside the apartment building across the street. It doesn't really seem to matter how cold it is outside, he will be out there with a scarf wrapped around his face, a dark long jacket on, and some type of computer-ish device held up close to his face. Sometimes when returning from work, or an evening pursuit (usually curling), you can stand on the corner across the street and watch him for a while. He never seems to get self-conscious and never looks at you. This strikes me as a bit strange because you know that feeling you get when somebody is watching you...it feels like somebody's watching you. Well, I don't think that this guy gets that feeling. Anyhow, I've been trying to build up enough nerve to go and talk to the guy and find out what he's doing, but I thought that I'd put it out there and see if anybody had words of wisdom about this type of thing. If I go talk to him and find out what he's doing, maybe I'll get sucked into the goings on of the underground (gasp!). Maybe he'll start text messaging me all the time asking for hot beverages, or one of those hot packs that you can put in your mittens.

I have narrowed it down to three and three only potential activities that this man may be undertaking. Do you think he's: a) hacking the open neighbourhood wireless connections and making a fortune on ebay while avoiding paying for internet service to his home, b) using this computer type device to conduct surveillance of his own on any of the surrounding neighbours - including Katherine and I, or c) arranging drug deals for our super duper sketchy neighbours downstairs, who we highly suspect of running drugs from our apartment.