Library

I was at the library yesterday to pick up some books to read while on the beach. As I approached the check-out counter with the 8 books in tow, the first book I saw on the librarian's desk was none other than Wake, by Lisa McMann.

Life is funny that way. Oh, and we survived one heck of a flash rainstorm complete with a little hail.

Vacation time!

We're heading up north to the cottage this morning for a few days. Ahhh, nothing beats vegging out at the cottage without having to think of home or work or anything in the home area.

Here's a preview of where I'll be...



If you look in the background, you might be able to see a water tower sticking out from the top of the trees - that's Casino Rama. Just far enough away to not be imposing on us, thankfully. (click on the picture to get a much better view of everything in there - picture was taken in May before everything fully bloomed)

Then, a week from today we hit the road for Ottawa, the first stop on our two week trip. Looking forward to getting out of town and exploring both new and old places (let's face it, by now I've touched pretty much every place in N.S. and P.E.I. as I've been there dozens of times, but will enjoy showing some of the best places to Pene and the kids). I'll keep a running travelogue on here where I can.

A few countdowns...

One day until the 3-day Skillpath workshop in Mississauga.
Five days until we go up to the cottage.
Twelve days until we hit the road to Ottawa for our first stop on the big trip extravaganza out East for two weeks.
Twenty-seven days until I go back to work (the day after we get home from our trip).

This might be the shortest summer I've ever had. Ack.

A visit with my father

My dad's in Southern Ontario for a few days -- he lives in Halifax on the East Coast. With his advancing age and less than reliable health, the realization that opportunities to visit is dwindling is starting to hit. You just never know when it is going to turn out to be the very last time or if there will be more visits to come. That's why Pene and I decided to go out East this summer in the van with the kids, even if we can't really afford to do so - when is going to be the next opportunity to go as a whole family, seeing that Ash only has two years left before she heads off to college and we can't bank on my father being around for perpetuity.

Yesterday we were in Paris for the annual Springtime In Paris festival. I'm finding community festivals to be a lot more enjoyable than major productions in big cities -- for example, why pay $100 for the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto when it's overcrowded, hot, has long lineups for rides, etc., when there's the festival in Paris which is free and the kids enjoy themselves just as much with the five playgrounds, donkey rides, old-fashioned carriage rides, and a raptor owl show? At the Ex, a bottle of water is $3 while a bottle goes for $1 in Paris.

As it turns out, my half-sister has just moved to Paris for her first post-graduate job (Just had her graduation ceremony at the U of T this past Thursday! Congrats to her), so we'll get to see more of her and it might even get my father out here more often to visit since I'm only about a 20-25 minute drive north of Paris.

Today? I'm still deciding if I want to take all of us out for a drive out to Stratford and Shakespeare, just a short hop down the highway from us - they're noted for their Stratford Shakespeare Festival performances (this town was one of the favourite getaway sites of Mystic and her late husband). Or if we should head up to Elora for the afternoon with the scenery and unique shops up there.

Decisions, decisions...

Great time with Starshine

We met up with Starshine at Coco's in Niagara Falls -- it turned out that Coco's was right next door to the late Tu Tu Tango which was where we had the Great Niagara Peep Meet dinner in 2006. Alas, Tu Tu Tango is no longer there.

As we drove up to Coco's, we immediately recognized Starshine sitting at a table, then went to park the car. Starshine turned out to be a gentle sort of fella, soft-spoken. We enjoyed hearing about his trip stories and the time he was having (I did get the sense he was starting to get a little 'trip-weary' seeing that he had been on the road for nearly two weeks now). Meemo arrived soon after and then Seana later on, it turned into a real gabfest. A real nice time to be had by all in great weather outside on a patio.

I would have liked to stay longer, however we had a bit of a drive to get back home, then I had another drive to work in the morning as it was the day all of my monthly stat reports were due!

All booked!

We're officially off to the East Coast in August! Pene just got confirmation from her work that the two weeks vacation request for August has been approved and I've just finished booking the last hotels along the route.

It's going to be a fun trip - there's 7 of us, including Pene's sister (yes, the one who lost her husband in January) so we'll have a full van. I think the trip will do wonders for her to actually get out and see things instead of hanging out at home all the time.

It's strange. Pene and her sister have been to Prince Edward Island (PEI) a dozen times or so, but they've never actually explored the Island. Their dad is a native Islander, but his idea of a family trip is to lock everyone in the car and drive non-stop for 18 hours until they get there, bathroom and hunger be damned until there's a need to stop for gas, and then they only have so much time to shoot some poop out and load up on food before he finishes refueling! Plenty of other horror stories to go around, with the topper being the day the family drove down to Niagara Falls for the day when Pene was a young gal, stopped along the parkway in front of the Falls, then after about five minutes, dad said "Okay it's time to go home!" Oy.

So anyway, Pene has since been to PEI a couple times with me where we actually got to get around and see some places, including Green Gables (believe it or not, Pene had never been there). It's time for her sister to actually experience walking around on the red soil there and see some sights, so I'm looking forward to that experience. Ever been to a place about 30 or 40 times in your life then it starts to get really old to you... then you meet someone and all of a sudden, that place starts to be exciting to you again as you get to show the way around? That's what it is like for me.

On this trip, we'll spend two nights in Quebec City, three days in a cottage on PEI, a week at my dad's place in Halifax, a night in Moncton on the way back (so we can see the Hopewell Rocks - go check it out here if you've never heard of it, it's one of a kind: www.thehopewellrocks.ca ), and finally a final night in Quebec before we arrive home. The annual Busker Festival will be in full swing in Halifax while we're there, so the timing is perfect. Always fun to check out the street performers.

Only three months to go...

Tarred and Feathered

So... how many of you were secretly hoping that Victor/Tammy would get out of the way and just let Margie/Luke duke it out with Kisha/Jen while Phil does the play-by-play?

I had to laugh at the Chinese couple who were sitting there at a table chowing down their food while the three teams were jostling their way to the mat and then getting to watch the crazy Americans brawl their way through the next 45 minutes.

New Job!

Well, folks... it's official.

I've been moved up to the level of Program Coordinator for the department since the position was vacated for a Professional Development leave. Big step up after 8 years only worrying about teaching and lesson plan development.

Tomorrow is going to be my first day on the job (yes, I made sure it's for real and not an April's Fool prank) and it'll be a big change as my teaching load will decrease and I'll have tons more time in the office instead of pounding information into my learners one after another.

I'd better go and dust off my old Roberts Rules of Order book for the meetings that will come...

Earth Hour

Great concept, and I hope to see Earth Hour become a regular thing in the future. We sent the little boys off to bed at their usual 8 pm bedtime, then just vegged out for a while with a tub of Haagen Daz ice cream and some Yellow Tail (Australia) wine with all of the lights off. I went downstairs at one point and it was eerily dark down there, and I mean, dark. The street lights were all off and you could barely make out the street at all outside the front door.

We discussed this in my class on Thursday and a few of the learners suggested "why not make this a monthly event, instead of an annual event?" Good point. Why does this only have to be an annual event? Why not do this on a more regular basis to keep us grounded and constantly remind us to do all of the little things to make a difference in this world? Turn the lights off when you're leaving a room, leave your car idling a little less often, make sure there's a completely full load of laundry and dishes before starting their respective machines, use the BBQ to cook 3 things instead of the oven and two burners, walk to the grocery store a block away instead of driving over there, etc etc etc.

Now, if only they could just turn off the damn sign over at the corner from our house that advertises the McDonald's, Domino's, lawyer's office, realtor's, etc. ...

A brilliant marketing strategy

I just heard about a posting for "The Best Job In The World", and at first I was thinking "Are they serious?" Then after thinking about it for a bit, I realized what a brilliant marketing strategy it is.

What am I babbling about, anyway? It's called the Island Reef Job, and it's a six-month contract as caretaker of Hamilton Island just off Queensland, Australia. Basically, all you do is to wander around, sleep and fart most of the day, go snorkeling or scuba diving, dip your toe into the ocean here'n'there, and take pictures/videos of things you see along the way, then post about it at least once a week on a blog. That's it. Meanwhile, Tourism Queensland is going to compensate you by providing a 3-bedroom villa, technical gadgets to blog with, airfare to and from your home, and, oh yea, $150,000 AU Dollars (which comes to about $125K Canadian).

At first, I was thinking, that's crazy to be offering so much money and perks for a six-month contract. You'd think that people would knock each other down to get this job for a mere $25K or so, or even be willing to do this for free if you just paid their way over and provided 3 square meals a day. But then you see that the Island Reef Job website has crashed so often due to server overloads in the three or four days since the posting was announced, and that thousands of people have already applied for the job. The competition is going to be real fierce, and possibly, bloody - quite fitting for the land that brought us Aussie Rules Footy.

Think about it, imagine how much attention Hamilton Island is going to get and the onrush of tourism it will get after this strategy. The buzz is so great already, and I had never heard of Hamilton Island -- until now -- so it's clearly working already. If you check out some pictures of Hamilton Island online, you'd see how gorgeous it is. It's a 'Survivor'-worthy site.

Maybe I ought to apply... the job description sounds like it's right up my alley (well, who wouldn't be a good fit for this position? :-) ), and I have a little over a month left to come up with a creative storyline to put into an one-minute video. Kinda like applying for 'Survivor'... A bonus, I could post on OT for 20 hours a day and nobody would care if I did that while on Hamilton Island.

Ideas are always welcome for the application video.

Countdown for "Fade"

I thought I'd put this here - some of you might not be aware that Wheezy's (Lisa McMann) second book is coming out pretty soon. So, here's a countdown clock! I'm looking forward to Fade, it should be a great complement to her first book, Wake.

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