In case you’re ripe for another random strawberry sighting (see below), you may be interested to know that Kellogg’s is running a new contest: Spot the Strawberry. The prize for the contest, which was run on YTV and closed March 23, was a bicycle helmet. I was just in London, after a few days in Oxford. Yes. Well then. Indeed. One thing the British take seriously is a good hot drink. Perhaps the Prime Minister can get the ball rolling this week in talks with other G20 leaders by insisting that they drink from the same tea pot. After all, a few years ago it was reported that if the…

I flew into San Antonio this evening as the sun was setting. It’s my first time in Texas. The sun was hot on the airplane window and the city was shrouded in haze. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever been happy to see summer-ish smog. Sure enough, it was as warm outside as in, and the air was thick with humidity and Spanish. I hopped in a cab and within a few minutes we crested a gentle rise from the flatlands of the airport and the skyline came into view: Lots of big buildings and a tower ringed with light bulbs. Yellow, incandescent light bulbs. My work is…

I get nervous climbing up a ladder to clean the eaves trough on the first floor of my 1.5 storey house. So, faced with the opportunity to change the bulbs on the Calgary Tower, how could I refuse the chance to get over this base fear? It really wasn’t so bad. The worst part was climbing the ladder and getting across the threshold of a little window that led to the catwalk along the rim of the tower. Oh, and the wind. And the ice on the catwalk. OK, it was very uncomfortable. But 210 bulbs are changed and there’s no way people in Calgary can miss noticing the Tower…

Forty-one is fine. My mother called this morning from a beach in Portugal with birthday wishes. She caught me in the middle of a scramble — getting the kids ready for school after sleeping in too late because I got home last night at 11:30PM from a whirlwind trip to Pennsylvania and back (12 hours of travel for a 45 minute meeting — and I’m an “energy conservation” consultant … ). Life’s a beach for the grandparents, but I still wouldn’t trade places with them. I have to say that at 41 years old I’m happier and healthier than I have ever been. I’ve had enough tragedy in my life…

Joanne writes from Vancouver: “on my run this morning, I saw a strawberry with a bite out of it sitting on the sidewalk…at the corner of 10th and Ontario, no less…I almost fell flat on my face in surprise….” Living is easy with eyes closed Misunderstanding all you see It’s getting hard to be someone, but it all works out It doesn’t matter much to me Let me take you down, cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields …

News flash: There’s something afoot. You won’t read about this in the papers, or even in the alternative media, but it appears that someone in Ottawa is walking around eating fruit salad carelessly. The woman sitting next to me on the flight from Ottawa to Calgary yesterday told me she too saw a strawberry on the sidewalk, but it was in a different part of town. (See yesterday’s post, below). I can’t remember the last time I felt so honestly shocked. Someone is trying to change the world one berry at a time. Her name was Catherine, a wisp of a woman of about 50 with short cropped hair and…

This morning Jasper was a bit moody and blue when I dropped him off at school. We’d spent the day at home yesterday because Simon was sick with a bad cold and it’s easier to have both of them at home at once. I’d gotten a lot of work done, but we managed to watch a bit of a movie, mess up the house, and slip out for lunch at Subway. So this morning as we skittered across the cold parking lot toward the school I reached for a quick fix for his funk. “Look, Jasper. Just think about how weird it is that that bright thing up there is…

The double-bagged kitty litter now has to be split between two bags because it is too heavy for the garbage people to pick up curbside. This is too much interaction with Puddy’s sullied clumping gravel. If there’s a lesson here, I’m missing it. Suzy got her sister JD a ticket to see Leonard Cohen at the NAC in an advance ticket sale. This morning people were lined up to buy tickets when they went on sale for everyone else. Apparently they were sold out upon opening, even online, and are now being scalped on the web for $2000. Upon hearing this, I told Suzy she and JD should cash in,…

I’m still learning. This weekend I discovered that it’s just too risky to try to carry a black garbage bag-full of kitty litter up from the basement and through the house en route to the trash can. Double bag it. In bed with me now as I write is “Audacity of Hope” and “Tantric Sex for Dummies.” Audacious indeed. With Suzy asleep beside me, it’s probably also hopeless. I also have some new toys (no, not in bed with me, and not those kind): This new Vaio laptop, and a Buddhist singing bowl with mallet. I can’t make either work properly. And from the “simplify, simplify” department, check out the…