Cindy Lou Who needs you
There is an amazing drama unfolding in Ottawa. You might have heard of it. Remember a few months ago, when GC and I were looking for a dog and we…
Zoom!
Another reason to love GC
He made me a lemon bread to take to the office potluck.
I actually kind of like my new job
At my new job, I phone people. Don’t you think that’s ironic? I’m phonophobic, yet somehow I ended up with a job that involves phoning taxpayers all over the world…
Safe injection sites: Treating people with addictions like they matter
Last October, the Supreme Court ruled that Insite, Vancouver’s safe injection site, could stay open despite the Harper Government’s objections. The arguments hinged on whether addiction was primarily a health…
Financial Planning for Kids
GC and Rosie and I were out walking on Saturday afternoon, when we encountered the following scene. Two boys, perhaps eleven or twelve years old, had climbed up on top…
Heartwarming goodbyes
CCOC (Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation) wasn’t just a nice place to work. It turned out to be a nice place to leave, too. On my last day of work, they…
A long hard week with a happy ending
Thursday was one of those days. I’m still figuring out the buses on my commute to and from work, and I somehow got myself turned around at the Billings Bridge…
Feeding Time at the Zoo
This is what a typical Birdie Breakfast looks like around here. Going clockwise from the left, that’s Simon’s breakfast, Kazoo’s breakfast and Oboe’s breakfast. By suppertime, Simon’s breakfast dish will…
Do you put your children or your marriage first?
I was scanning my google reader the other day and I saw Dumb Little Man had a blog post called Five Surefire Ways to Kill Your Marriage. It’s hard to…
The meaning of life
I’m working at home this week and next. I like walking to work, so I go for a walk each morning before I get started. We’re not talking a quick…
Prisoners in my basement
I spent all day Friday as a prisoner in my own basement. My tub and shower were being replaced with a Bathfitter acrylic surround, and there were some smelly chemicals…
I’m starting to wish I hadn’t joined the NDP
I can hardly wait until March 24th when all the NDP leadership candidates stop compaigning for my vote. My phone has been ringing off the hook with recorded messages from…
French parrot needs translator
As you might recall, my double-yellow-headed Amazon parrot, Kazoo, came to me at the age of 13 from a Francophone family. Although she has a fairly limited vocabulary, she’s a…
Am I sick or am I stoned?
Many years ago, when I was in my teens, I spent a pleasant afternoon with three friends drinking Tussionex, which is a prescription cough syrup. Personally, I preferred to spend…
A controversial facebook status
I’m shamelessly copying and pasting this from a friend’s Facebook status. As you might expect, it generated some controversy there, and I’m curious to hear what you think. “There’s a…
Dog vs. Cat
One of my colleagues sent this around yesterday. I’ve watched it about five times since. I laughed so hard the fifth time I almost wet my pants, so I better…
Grumpy stuff and happy stuff
I have a cold and it’s making me uncharacteristically irritable. Little things are getting to me, like slow web sites, and disappearing menu bars in my browser, and Rosie’s squeaky…
New Job
The place I’ve been working since September – Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation – is great. It’s a private non-profit housing organization, and I was a tenant of theirs for years.…
The Macbook, the Geek, and the birds
I took my Macbook into Best Buy the other night because it was making funny noises and the three-year warranty hadn’t run out yet. Apple calls their technicians Geniuses. Best…
The Ottawa Citizen needs a new website
The Ottawa Citizen needs a new website. The current one is way more frustrating than any website should be in 2012. It’s intermittently slow and unresponsive, and if you watch…