just percolating...
To start at Part 1, click here. We are done thought Victoria. Suddenly a female voice screamed a command and the dragon froze in its place. “Windisk! You know better than that!” the voice continued. “Stop threatening those …err… visitors” The girl then walked out. She was about twelve years in age. She introduced herself as Cloeshi. Cloeshi wore a toga under billowing robes but her feet were bare and a small wooden hair band type thing … [Read more...]
Ottawa is my home. And yet, for most of my life, I thought that Winterlude only took place on the Rideau Canal -- you skate, you look at snow sculptures, you have hot chocolate and a Beavertail! These are very fond memories and stand as some of my favourite things to do during this winter carnival. Over a number of years though, there is somewhere else that has edged its way to the top of our Winterlude-heart. It's Snowflake Kingdom. … [Read more...]
On a stormy night before the nineteen thirties, two sisters, twins to be exact, were huddled on a ship by themselves. They had set out on a voyage to Indonesia for a vacation, and all had gone totally wrong. Most of the crew members had fallen overboard, this included their father. Diseases spread, food ran out and the ship seemed to have a knack for getting attacked by sharks. Then soon scurvy began to take its toll. The sisters seemed to never … [Read more...]
Dear Hubby, There's no easy way to break this to you. I thought the heart-thumping joy when seeing his face would fade, but alas, it's been four years now and I need to accept that my love for him is simply far stronger than even I could have imagined. (That's right, I'm telling you that I'm in love with another man via my blog. If being in love with another man doesn't have you running for the door, that surely will.) While I've always … [Read more...]
I'm really sorry about there not being a post yesterday The reason why is that I was going to an NAC concert with my best friend! So I had to postpone the blog post to see it, because who wants to hear about my predictions! You want the actual event!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (excessive use of exclamation marks!) So yesterday afternoon I set out with my friend and her family to go to the NAC to see Green Eggs And Hamadeus. The traffic was … [Read more...]
The other day someone mentioned the Oscars. Oh! That means it's time for my annual cram-fest ... where I see how many nominated movies I can manage to see before the actual event. This year's Oscars are on February 24th, which means I have 17 days to see what I can squeeze in and not feel like a pop-culture wallflower (aka a parent). Last year, out of the 10 films that had been nominated, I'd seen three. This year, there are nine films … [Read more...]
Stella is my 10-year-old daughter and on Saturdays, I let her rent this space from me because she thinks blogs are cool. It is her hope that her writing will appeal to kids her age as well as to the adults who read here too. (For the intro to Saturdays with Stella, click here.) This week, Stella wants to tell you all about Halifax, which we visited last summer on our holidays. source Halifax: A Wonderful Place to Visit! If you ever go to … [Read more...]
In February of last year, my dear friend was told she had cancer. Bone cancer, to be precise. It was a blow out of nowhere. One day, she is fit and healthy and playing basketball. The next, she is being told she will need to have life-changing surgery on her leg and endure countless rounds of chemo. Once she got over the whole shock of it, she told me that losing her hair, enduring the seemingly never-ending sickness of chemo (aka "poison … [Read more...]
When I told you about my New Year's Resolution, I also said I'd tell you how I planned to achieve it. I have three steps in my success plan. #1: The FitBit My goal is to hit 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day. So, naturally, I needed a way to track how many steps I'm doing. For this task, I chose a handy dandy gadget called a FitBit (I bought the "Ultra" now replaced by the "The One"). I had been eyeing this fancy version of pedometer for a while … [Read more...]
It's a touch dusty around here. I know ... I know ... my stupid New Year's Resolution is totally interfering with my "me time" (i.e. blog time). I need to put in an extra hour of walking in at night to be able to hit those 8,000 to 10,000 steps. And then afterwards, I have a spurt of adrenaline that is nice but not nice enough to provide me with any creative writing juice that will keep me up past my bed time. Yet once I get into bed, I end up … [Read more...]
Stella is my 10-year-old daughter and on Saturdays, I let her rent this space from me because she thinks blogs are cool. It is her hope that her writing will appeal to kids her age as well as to the adults who read here too. For the intro to Saturdays with Stella, click here. source Fredrick Banting and the Great Idea: A Life Story You may have heard of Fredrick Banting, but not necessarily know what he did. You may not have even heard … [Read more...]
On Saturday, I flew to Chicago. I am attending a trade show on Tuesday for work, so I thought I'd arrive early and see some sights. I've never been to Chicago, and I always feel like it's a real shame when one travels for business and never gets to see anything but the hotel and the meeting rooms. So whenever possible, I try to book a vacation day before or after and take in a little bit of the atmosphere. Before arrival, my knowledge of … [Read more...]
Stella is my 10-year-old daughter and on Saturdays, I let her rent this space from me. For the intro to Saturdays with Stella, click here. Ottawa is the capital of Canada so it is only natural that we have all the national museums right here. These museums are the best ones in the country and are the big cheeses of all the rest. In this post, I will tell you about my three favourites. The Canadian Museum of Nature is quite the impressive … [Read more...]
Dear readers, I am sharing this post because there has been a tragedy in my home town of Ottawa. The community has been hit hard and like most parents, I've been struggling with how to talk to my children about these three deaths. Krista Gray-Donald, a friend of mine who works with victims of violent crime, offered to put together some tips and resources for me. In speaking with her, she also offered to share this information here on Coffee … [Read more...]
My quest to use safer cosmetics is progressing slowly (but surely). In contrast, changing over the family's shampoos and conditioners can be done in one quick and easy swoop. Since day one, I've been more careful to read ingredients on the products I used with the kids, so I've had some years to try quite a few brands. … [Read more...]
Wondering what Saturdays with Stella is all about? It is a column written by my 10-year-old daughter, which was first introduced here. Now have you ever had an argument with a friend about whether dogs or cats were better? You're not alone. I used to be a dog person because we had a big black dog with a white stripe down his chest. I was only a dog person because I had never really interacted with a cat before. Then one of our … [Read more...]
Back in 2010, I received an email that started like this: My name is Brennan and I am a fourth year student at the University of Ottawa and co-founder of a local start-up called Avitu. In a nutshell, Avitu is social and community driven online advertising platform and ad management tool. For the past 4 months myself and my two classmates (both software engineering students at UofO) have been incubating out of Shopify in the Byward Market trying … [Read more...]
For a second outing during our Ottawa staycation (you can read about our first outing here), we decided to head up to the Gatineau Hills for a cross-country ski. It would have actually been a sin not to go cross-country skiing with all of the snow we had over the Christmas season here in Ottawa! Everywhere around us, as far as one could see, the world had a bit of a magical gleam to it with mounds of fluffy snow hanging upon the tree … [Read more...]
We rarely do a "staycation," but last week our whole family stayed home in Ottawa on holiday. It did involve chores around the house (like mountains of laundry) and items on the to-do list that never seem to get tackled (like organizing the kitchen cupboards), but we also did some really nice outings to break things up. Plus, lots of hanging out in jammies all day too, of course. One of these outings was to the Canadian Museum of Nature. We've … [Read more...]
Hello! I’m back again! I can not express how happy I was to see how enthusiastic you all were about my new column! (My mom and I have agreed that we will post by noon every Saturday.) I have a topic I hope you will find interesting! I’ll tell you what, if you live anywhere that has a handful of kids (it’s an expression, because it’s pretty hard to carry kids in your hand) and a few yards full of snow, I can guarantee there will be a ton of … [Read more...]
Okay, so my niggling feeling that the lamps, no matter how much I liked them, were not "right" for the space was confirmed LOUDLY by all of you yesterday! haha ... I love getting your opinions -- you guys rock! One thing was communicated clearly -- I need bigger lamps! In particular, Giulia recommended the sizing to be as follows: "If going for a shade you need something bigger, the top of the lampshade should hit where the the top of your … [Read more...]
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