You're poorer than you think

I just wanted to highlight the shenagians being purportrated by Scotiabank regarding it's former Fly Free with Scotia One Promotion. Apparently there are hoards of people who've been unable to book flights through the promotion, sponsored by Scotiabank and TLC Canada Inc.

There have been numerous complaints (google cache link - as the main site seems to be down).

May I suggest a nice TD account... recently providing free Ipods. Or better, a free ING account with no soul-sucking charges at all.

Mercury in CFL's

Yes, I've been wondering about the mercury in compact fluorescent light bulbs as well. I like the energy efficiency... but perhaps going all the way to banning incandescent bulbs is a bit over the top until the impact can be accessed.

The mercury has to go somewhere in the end
and where will that be?
In my beloved tuna! That's where!
And then in me.

Accident outside

There was a car accident outside the house today, whilst we were out at an appointment. They came quite close to our car, and even closer to a natural gas box on the corner. It was not slippery, I don't know what happened. They took out a tree and a sign.. Tam's Mom said an ambulance came... I have not heard the story yet.

Nova returns

Nova has returned from his vacation with Auntie Sharron, and is not moping around at home wondering where his "new mommy" and Star have gone.

He learned to sleep on his mat, and not on the bed while he was away. That's a good thing.

Winterlude - Ice Sculptures

Just a few photos of the ice carvings from the winterlude competition. We dropped by last night to have a look, and get a beavertail... but the beavertail line was insanely long, so we just took photos instead.


 

Superbowl ads

Superbowl ad videos are available here and here.

Nova and Poppy

Nova and Poppy have been taking lots of walks during the holidays. The picture shows them in the dog park on a cold morning after some snow. 

TV Wall mounted

Dad an I wall mounted the new 37" LCD TV that we got for Christmas. And Tammy moved the sofa table to put the Xbox 360 (also Christmas) and HD Terminal on it. I'm very glad, as the TV on the small table looked terrible, and I was a bit worried that it was not stable enough. Now I've got to find some sort of chord solution to make things look tidy. 

Parliment Hill - Christmas Lights

Mom, Dad and I went to the hill to check out the lights. It was very beautiful, but also quite cold. We've gotten some snow today, so at least it was a little christmassy.

 

More Christmas

Sharron dropped a few chocolates (all of them) on Christmas morning. She was pleased.


Also, a shot of the illuminated tree (very small, artifical and cheap from price club). And a shot of the Christmas booty all strewn around the family room just after opening.
 

New TV and Xbox 360

Photos of the new 37 inch LCD TV and Xbox 360 that Santa brought for Christmas. We're thinking of wall mounting it, so please ignore the hideous table and tv tray setup.
 

Christmas Day

Mom and Dad Anthony and Tammy's sister Sharron joined us for Christmas this year. Here are some photos from Christmas morning and dinner.

Dad has quite the spread.
Here Sharron is outfitting Star with her new cuddly bath robe.
Mom liked her "Grandmother" Willowtree ornament.
Tammy opens a gift as "Santa" distributes gifts from the tree. 

Sanitary demise

Apparently, infants wheeze less in homes with multiple dogs. No, we're not going to get another dog... but it does tend to validate my theory that we're supposed to eat the mud pies... not avoid them.

This anti-bacterial, anti-dust, Purel coated bubble world we're living in is not actually condusive to long term good health.

Eat the dirt my boy, it will put hairs on your chest.

No Battlestar

Grrrr. No Battlestar makes Stephen go something something....

Go Crazy? Don't mind if I do!

Windsor

The Windsor trip went well. Had a good time at the symposium. Photos of Windor are on flickr.

There was not really much to see. It's an industrial town, and the weather was grey and overcast. I took a walk down Dieppe Park by the Detroit River. The park was part of a greening project the city did, and had lots of war memorials, green spaces, and a few things to see. The Detroit skyline is very striking, particularly the GM building.
The water was green and the air was smelly and grey. Perhaps it's because I was just back from the beautiful city of Boston, but Windsor didn't seem to hold any charms for me.

Spiderman 3

Spiderman 3 has a new trailer - It will be comming out May 4th. Mmmmmmm, Spiderman 3.

Back from Boston

I had a nice afternoon strolling a few kilometers around Boston on Monday afternoon. I was in town for a workshop hosted by the Digital Library Federation regarding their Services Framework Working group. I'll probably blog more on that over at Enterprise Abstraction.

Boston is a moden city, but it seems to have managed to keep it's culture. Old combines with new in interesting ways. Modern towers dwarf older, interesting, architecture. There was something new around every corner. The public gardens were particularly beautiful, I think I managed to visit at just about the right time to get the full colours.

I managed to capture over 100 images in about 3 hours, many of which can be seen in my Flickr set. A few samples are posted here.






 

NovaTube

OK. Yes, I've become one of those useless basement take photos of my cat and blog it kinda people. But hey.... that's what web 2.0's all about, no?

Tammy in her - ahem - wisdom, decided to buy Nova some footwear. I don't know why. She just did. Here are the results in full colour video (via YouTube) for your amusement.

• Single bootie
• Two booties
• Test run with all four - Dog N'boots
  
• Slightly more confidence

That was $14.00 well spent.

House off market

It's been going on for too long. We're still looking to sell, but with the baby coming, and lots of other concerns, we decided to delist the house until spring (when hopefully the market will pick up). The lookie-loos coming in to look but not buy were starting to get to us.

So, wait for spring, and in the meantime, we'll get setup for baby.

Upcoming travel

For those tracking my movements (you know who you are -- echelon echelon)... I'll be off to Boston the second week in November, and to Windsor Ontario the week following. They've got me doing the Enterprise Architecture and SOA for libraries meeting circuit. Fortunately, it's a small circuit at the present time.

I don't get to spend much time in Boston unfortunately... it seems a very neat city with lots and lots of things to see.