28 posts tagged “canada”
Next time you bitch about how it's now a law in Quebec to have winter tires between December 15th and March 15th, there might be a reason for it. I should mention that this photo was taken on December 8th, a full 24 hours before the 35cm of snow that the Montreal region received on December 9th.
This is probably the most unique car in ditch poses I've ever seen in person.
This morning I took the three kids to watch the Olympic Torch relay as it passed through town on it's way to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
Before you think I'm the best dad ever, just to let you know I did totally lose it on them getting everyone ready and out of the house on time. In the end think we got there 5 to 10 minutes before the relay arrived.
It was pretty exciting to actually see the flame coming down the street. We have been watching the daliy updates on the local news so I think with ET being the oldest he understood what was going on.
I'm glad we saw it at the town hall since with the kids being so young I think just watching along the route would have been too quick for them.
I was hoping that we might have seen some of the mascots as they are super cute and kids would have enjoyed it but they probably save them for the big end of day celebrations. Or not since they seem to be currently on tour in British Columbia. This weekend I'll try to make some folded paper mascots with the kids.
When the relay arrived the crowd of course swarmed and left us on the outside so quickly (because I knew this whole was just going to last a few minutes) I put Carts on my shoulders, put a foot up on the carriage and balanced ET up on my knee so they could see the flame. I would love to see a photo of that, I must have looked crazy.
And like that it was over.
The boys seemed to have enjoyed it but noticed people had little Olympic flags and like a Norwegian Blue were pinning for the fjords wanted one (we did do an arts and crafts before bedtime and they made there own). We went in the city library to see if they had any but unfortunately they were all out. They had refreshments but the boys didn't want any so we started walking back to the car.
On the way back I noticed the relay bus was parked around the back of city hall and some people were milling about. So I headed over. I'm glad we did since one of the relay runners let the boys hold a torch and posed for a photo. Best advice I can ever give my kids; you want to meet someone after an event, run the around back.
While it might not be something the kids remember when they are grown, it was a fun event for them in the short term and as a parent you get excited to see your kids excited. When I picked up ET at school today he had two drawings of the mascots holding Olympic torches and he told me how one of the torch bearers had visited the school today as well and talked to his class. It's still strange for me when he recounts things that happened that I wasn't there with him for. You get excited because he's growing up and sad since he doesn't need you around.
And of course the last time the torch came to town was in 1988 for the Calgary Winter Olympics games and who knows the next time we'll get a chance to see it.
Plus I have to thank my boss Cindy for letting me take the time off work.
The new Sloan EP Hit & Run has dropped (as they say) and it's pretty good.
If you're unfamiliar with Sloan I'll make the assumption that you don't live in Canada but if you do... shame on you. And if you don't live here you should move, I'll wait.
Do yourself a favor and click play below and listen to the album as you read the rest of my review.
The title of the EP is most probably in reference to band member Chris Murphy being injured in a hit & run accident this past summer. That caused the group to cancel shows while he recouped.
As a long time fan it hits all the Sloan standards with tracks like Take It Upon Yourself, hand claps and all. It would have fit in nicely on their 1999 album Between the Bridges. It Is Never is pure Sloan awesomeness, but I'm a sucker for layered songs that build up to distortion endings that reprise the main theme. Plus I've always had a man crush on Patrick Pentland and his songs.
One of Sloan's strengths can also be a weakness on a five song EP like Hit & Run. With four distinctive song writers the variation can be jarring switching between them. Jay Ferguson's Midnight Mass is a perfect example of this problem. It's a good song but sandwiched between two up tempo ones brings down the energy. Which is a shame since Jay Ferguson has done some really great songs with excellent lyrics and melodies over the years.
That said it's a good addition to the Sloan catalog of memorable songs.
Sloan is offering the EP in MP3 320kbs, Apple Lossless and Flac formats directly from their site in addition to other music stores.
This is unreladed to the Hit & Run EP, but Witch's Wand was one of my favorite songs off their last album Parallel Play but the video that I just got around to watching is so weird I have no idea what's going on.
The real surprise was the marbles sized hail that came down near the end of the storm. It must have been pretty localized since not everyone I talked to the next day had seen it.
The boys were very excited (as was I) and wanted to go out during the storm and collect some hail. I got them to wait till after the storm died down. I still remember the huge hail we had in Quebec during the mid 1980's and didn't want them pummeled to death.
Donna collected some off the patio shelter for them as anything that had fallen on the ground had melted as it was like 30 degrees Celsius (or 86 degrees Fahrenheit) that day.
As the saying goes there's only three things certain in life death, taxes and phishing email scams.
Ok, I added the last one but it seemed appropriate considering this wonderful phishing scam I received regarding my taxes.
There were a few things that let me know that this was not on the up and up.
- The email contained no text. It was just an image.
- I haven't even filed this year's taxes yet.
- I'll be lucky if I get back two dollars let alone over two hundred.
At least it's nice to know that phishers care about Canada even during this economic downturn.
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Quebec's consumer watchdog, Options Consommateurs wants the province to make it illegal for credit card companies to solicit new customers. It might be a little nanny state, but the real problem is that some people do not have the life/economic skills required to deal with having credit. This usually leads to bad credit. I wonder if this is an over correction on their part to the credit crisis south of the border? What's needed is education for some and not taking something away from everyone else. Of course I don't think I would be alone in missing all the junk mail from credit card companies offering new cards we can't afford.
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CBC News has an Econometer (that is updated daily) based on consumers confidence
in the economy. Right now it's pretty evenly balanced from extremely worried to the worst is over. You can weight in on what your feelings are on the subject by completing the poll.
- The OECD says that Canada will be hit by a recession and unemployment rates will increase. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says that we're not in a recession but we may face a technical one. I'll say that politicians are proficient at double speak. I wonder if a technical recession will be easyier on low income families or people who have lost their jobs.
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Since it doesn't take an economist to realize that spending will be down this holiday season, it will probabley mean better deals as retailers try to entice the few willing to part with their income. I wonder if stores staying open later on the weekends in downtown Montreal will entice more shoppers to spend? Even with the undergound city and extended hours I'm sure the cold and snow will keep a good number of people away regardless of the economy.
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I've heard time and time again that during these troubled economic times, video games are a recession proof sector. The idea being that people are more willing to spend money to nest at home then venture out. It might be true... I've ordered a XBox 360 (as media extender first, game system second). It does certainly seems that the video game industry in Quebec is doing well.
When the Watermill takes off it will really be a boom to the droid resale market since what we'll all really need is a droid that understands the binary language of moisture vaporators.
I don't know about you but I can't believe the cost at the pumps the past week, it's like it's 2003 all over again! I'm out of practice guesstimating how much gas I'll get for such a low price.
Of course high gas prices of the past few summers has undoubtedly lead to signs like this below about paying in advance. You've always had to pay first during the night, but i think this is a first for me having to pay during the day.
If you're lucky (or unlucky) enough to be a Bell internet customer you can now get free Wi-Fi internet access at 650 Starbucks arcoss Canada.
I guess Bell feels sorry for us since the CRTC sided with Bell over their policy of internet throttling.
You wonder why there is so much voter apathy when it seems every two years there is either a Federal or Provincial election. So even though we just had a Federal election we now have a December 8th Provincial vote.
Remember to get out there and vote people!
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