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The one and only "G-Mac", owner of many cool lids |
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Just an Unusual Day All Around
Monday, July 30, 2012
Striking a Fine Balance
I've been pretty lax in writing blog posts the past little while. I was afraid this might happen when I finally broke my string of consecutive posting days last weekend while we were camping. On the other hand, it's more likely that the effort of trying to get The Grumpy Penguin website off the ground has left little time for much else, creativity-wise. I still hope to have it (my website) live by August 1, the day the article for which I was interviewed comes out in the Sun. Wish me luck, because I feel like it's going to be a very long day tomorrow.
On top of that this past weekend was a whirlwind. In the first place, both of my kids were with us (a rare treat) and I spent as much time with them as possible. On Saturday, Sarah and I went to the 6th birthday party of a wonderful little girl who was adopted into our extended family from China 5 years ago. (I also forgot to bring my camera so there are no pictures from that event; I really must be getting old or something.) On Sunday we put together a "thank you" dinner for my kids as a reward for all their help in looking after Addie the couple of times we've been away this summer. We managed to squeeze in a game of "Settlers of Catan", which is a terrific board game that Tim got for his birthday. Today the kids and I kind of hung out; I probably should have been working on the website, but I'm not sure when we'll next get to do this and I hate to miss these chances. Tim and I saw the absolutely terrible Hobo with a Shotgun this morning before Jill got up; if you get the chance to watch it might I suggest you just drive a tent peg through your hand instead. You will prefer that, trust me. We spent the afternoon playing on the Wii and watching the Olympics.
Sarah's taking some time off from work starting on Wednesday and we hope to get to the Zoo, the Picasso exhibit at the AGO, maybe Canada's Wonderland: just a bunch of day trips as we think of them. She goes back on the 13th and if she's not relaxed by then I think I'm going to be in a fair bit of trouble.
Apropos of nothing - because I'll never need a reason to post these kinds of pictures - here's another really sweet shot of Addie:
Lying in a current of fresh air, waiting for mommy and dinner |
That was taken last Thursday evening as Addie waited for "mommy" to come home. She has been super-cute since we got back from camping and was absolutely in her glory this weekend with a house full of people who love her. Lucky girl.
Well, that's it for now. I was going to write something about RoFo's meeting with Will and Zach today but you know...it really would have been nothing new. Maybe something cool will happen at the Olympics tomorrow because I think they've been kind of dull up to now and you know I'm an Olympic Games junkie. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Olympics Time Again
I love the Olympics. Even after all of the tragedies, the cheating judges, the doping scandals, the ridiculous upheld or denied appeals, the politics, the billion-dollar losses by the host nations, even after all of that the Olympic Games still manage to enthrall me each and every time they are staged, winter or summer. My memories of past Olympic Games go back as far as Mexico City in 1968, although I really only saw the events that were staged on the two weekends that summer. Television coverage back then, as I recall, was pretty much restricted to prime time during the week and that was past the bedtime of my 7-year-old self. I don't recall a lot of what I watched that year, simply that I did watch some of the events and probably on American television for the most part. After the Olympics I began to watch ABC's Wide World of Sports every weekend, hoping to see some of the strange and new (to me) sports that had captivated me during the Games. Before Mexico City it is very likely that I had never seen gymnastics, diving, judo, fencing, or most track and field events; after that I was excited to try almost every new sport I saw that summer.
Friday, July 27, 2012
Awenda 2012 - Day Four and the Journey Home
Chippy bum!! |
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Awenda 2012 - Day Three - Chippy Party Time
Sarah and her "students" |
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Awenda 2012 - Day Two
What a delightful way to start the day! |
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Back Home in Body but not Spirit - Awenda Day One
Not our plates...but they should be |
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Taking the Weekend Off
Well, not fishin' per se. Camping. Sarah and I are getting up to Georgian Bay for the weekend and I just didn't have the time this week to put any posts "in the can". Looks like my streak of daily posts will come to an end today at 108. And, you know....I'm ok with that. Ol' Grumpy P will be back on Tuesday (Monday if it's pouring and we come home early) with hilarious tales from the Ontario wilderness. Be sure to tune in for that!
In the meantime, let's all sing:
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Just Trying to Make it to Friday
Another shooting today in Toronto. At least this shooter had the "decency" to only hit the one person. I guess that's an improvement.
And then there was the small matter of the machete attack about 100 yards from our car dealership. So, what: it's gotta be the heat, right? Right?
Sigh.
Our beautiful, annual site at Awenda |
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Stop the Madness
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One of the two people killed in the Danzig shootings on Monday credit: Liam Casey/Toronto Star |
There was another public barrage of bullets yesterday in Toronto. Two people died and twenty-four others were injured.
Twenty-four others were injured. I'll let that sink in for a moment. Now I'll continue: one of the victims is twenty-two months old. Good luck letting that sink in.
Originally we were told that many of the victims were injured as people rushed to vacate the area of the gunfire. But that wasn't the case as all but one of the twenty-six people who were either killed or injured in the melee last night were hit by a bullet (or several bullets).
In Toronto, we are told that "violence is down" from past years and our mayor insists that this was an "isolated incident". Later that same mayor declared a "war on gangs" (a month too late), which is a poor choice of words at the best of times, quite aside from everything always being a "war" with RoFo. In Ottawa, predictably, the amoral Harper Government seized the spotlight to make it all about them, as usual.
Monday, July 16, 2012
A Summer of Extremes
I've been concentrating quite a bit on getting The Grumpy Penguin going as a business concern over the past few days and this is a trend that will continue over the next little while. The result has been that when it's come time to create my daily blog post I am not feeling quite as creative as I might otherwise be. On top of that, Sarah and I are going to be camping this weekend and I think the unbroken streak of daily posts which dates back to April 3 may have to come to an end, because I simply don't see myself putting four days' worth of blog pieces "in the can" before we take off on Friday. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, but for today I'm just going to put a couple of recent photos up here, talk about them a bit and then get back to the other work at hand. Sorry if you're disappointed; however, I'm afraid there will be no refunds.
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Grumpy P and the missus |
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Missing Kenora
A tile wall mosaic at the Kenora Skate Park |
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Advertising's "Culture of Meanness"
I saw an older ad for Rogers Communications today. I didn't like this particular ad when it originally ran and now they are recycling it. Two couples are having a barbecue and the women are sitting at a backyard table chatting amiably when all of a sudden the guys yell out in glee, because they are surreptitiously watching "The Big Game" on some sort of mobile device. The women look at them and one of the men sheepishly says, "The burgers are done!" I don't remember what comes next, something about "men and their barbecues" I think (having, apparently, not enough brain power to figure out what's going on), but it's pretty much just crap. The point of this ad is the guys are "getting away with something" because they are watching the game on the sly while they are together cooking the burgers on the grill. But why does there have to be this subterfuge? Why can't they be watching the game while the women have their own mobile device, watching whatever they want to watch? (Actually, it would be better if they were also watching the same damn game, but that's a blog post for another day.) I don't know why this particular Rogers ad got to me today because people generally act reprehensibly in virtually all of their tv spots and most of them are far worse than this one. But it got me thinking about how much meanness and unnecessary anguish is being used these days to sell things that really shouldn't need that kind of a campaign. I understand the value of tugging at your heartstrings or playing with your emotions to give to a "noble cause" (as I spoke of in my post about aggressive solicitation this week), but to sell a phone? Really?
Friday, July 13, 2012
Another Scorcher in The Big Smoke
Hot again here today, hot and muggy and oppressive. But at least I have been too busy the past couple of days to really notice the weather. I've started playing around with a trial website through a company called "Your Web Department". They were suggested to me by Lisa from the Challenge Factory when we met on Wednesday; they offer a "no-code" website service which makes it very easy to use one of their many templates and add all your own content. As my business will be selling content to other people, this shapes up quite well for me. The company is run by Paul Chato, whose name sounded very familiar to me when Lisa told me about this company the other day. There's a good reason for that: Paul Chato is a former member of The Frantics, a comedy troupe from Toronto. I actually spoke to him today on the phone because he saw that I had signed up for the trial and Lisa had told him about me and my start-up; he actually said he was "excited" to see me sign up for the trial today after Lisa bent his ear this week. If things work out he may be able to send business my way from his site or just take me on for some contract work as a content writer, which would be completely awesome. The momentum of this new venture is really quite something right now: today I registered The Grumpy Penguin as a business in Ontario and signed up for a Facebook page under that name. As I've said numerous times before, things are actually happening almost on their own. It's really exciting.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
The Grumpy Penguin: Almost Ready for Prime Time
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My business card with the "old" logo |
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
"Play Me, I'm Yours"
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"Play Me, I'm Yours" piano at the Royal Conservatory |
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
The Ethics of Aggressive Solicitation
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I need to put one of these on a t-shirt |
Monday, July 9, 2012
Hammerin' Jose Almost Pulled it Off
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Jose Bautista at 2012 Home Run Derby credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images |
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Pool Party!
I wish I was still in this pool now... |
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Welcome to the World, Jordan Lofthouse
Sarah, Tim and I just got back from a wonderful visit with a family that are among the best people we know. They had a daughter, Zoe, two and a half years ago after quite a few years of trying and were convinced that was going to be it for them. But, of course, Mother Nature had something entirely different in mind for them (as she often does) and they were blessed with a son this past week, whom they named Jordan. He is a real "Yankee Doodle Dandy", born on the fourth of July in the wee small hours of the morning and boy oh boy is he a cutie. We were very lucky to get to see and hold him so early in his life, only a little over ninety hours after he made his appearance. He's a very calm and collected little guy and we could not be happier for our friends, Alex and Julie Lofthouse. They were kind enough to let me use their names on my blog, but - understandably - preferred not to have any photos put up for public consumption, so here is my rendering of the happy family:
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The Lofthouses welcome their newest member! |
Sarah helped with the hair. Otherwise, she is completely off the hook for this "sketch".
Julie is taking a few months off with Jordan but after New Year's it will be Alex' turn and I hope he has even 10% as much fun being a stay-at-home Dad as I did. We were lucky enough to meet up with them at the Kiwanis pool last Monday and then have them over for a barbecue and a relaxing evening. Just over twenty-four hours after they left us their son was born. Hopefully Alex, Zoe and I will get back to the pool once or twice while he's off work for the next couple of weeks, too. Zoe, by the way, is completely smitten with her new brother; when we went to visit them tonight she couldn't wait to show us her "baby". She is going to be a terrific big sister.
We've only been home an hour or so and already we miss little Jordan. We're thrilled for our friends and are ready for our next round of babysitting duties, whenever they want to take us up on the offer. In the meantime, I plan on sneaking as much Toronto Maple Leaf paraphernalia into Jordan's room as I can, because his Dad is a die-hard Ottawa Senators fan. I guess it really is true that nobody's perfect!
Congratulations to Julie, Alex and Zoe, and thanks for letting us come and see Jordan so quickly!
Friday, July 6, 2012
Hot Enough for Ya?
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The sun was angry that day, my friends... |
Well, I'm doing something about it. I'm going to tell you all about a trip to Minden, Ontario that Sarah and I took in February of 2007. In the winter. With snow and everything. I hope you enjoy it.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Is Empathy Becoming a Lost Art?
There is one particular journalist in Toronto who consistently writes excellent copy on a variety of subjects and I am a big fan of his work. I even took a course under his tutelage back in the early spring and thoroughly enjoyed it. He is an erudite and intelligent man whose wife is also a journalist; I follow both of them on Twitter but have only met the husband. I know they have a young family and I know they love living in Toronto (they have settled down in an emerging, dare I say "hip" part of town). This family is the very definition of "urbanite", in my opinion, and - judging from their writings, because I don't truly know them "in real life" - they wear it exceedingly well.
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Baby Red-Winged Blackbird credit:Valleyohio/Dreamstime.com |
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
The Jays Were Back Today!
More terrific volunteer work by the Jays' personnel |
But you'd be wrong.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Now, Back to the Lunacy
Wonder if these will still be here next July 1? |
Monday, July 2, 2012
Canada Day Hangover
The midway tonight at 8:30; these people do nothing fast |
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Happy Dominion Canada Day!
A patriotic house on Woodbine Ave. |
Sarah and the (non-functioning) Ferris wheel at noon |
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