Two days to go. The kids can hardly sleep. In 48 hours I should be damping down the wood stove for the night, carrying some sweaty kids into the loft for a deep Walden snooze under a snow-covered skylight. (The stove quickly turns the little winter cabin into a hothouse). We’ll be tired. Tonight Mom and Rod called from Summerside to report that PEI was socked in today with 30 cm of snow. That means that my little driveway that snakes through the maples from the road past the spring to the cabin will be drifted over. I’m bringing snow shoes for Jasper and we’ll pick up a cheap sled…

It’s the holiday season again. People who know me know that I’m most in the Christmas Spirit in November. It wanes as December 25 approaches. Might have something to do with the pressure or shopping, overeating, darkness. It’s three weeks to Christmas Eve and there’s too much snow on the bushes to put up the lights and I’ve only bought a few gifts. At the risk of destroying my credibility as an environmentalist, I’m thinking seriously of having an “Old Fashioned Christmas” by replacing some CFLs with 60-watters. We can all gather around the warm yellowy glow of yesteryear as we read the revised report from the IPCC. Comfort and…

Suzy’s been away since Friday morning, in Calgary helping out with the Alberta campaign. I took the opportunity to throw stuff out. I found an entire box of curtains in the linen closet, taken down last from our apartment on James St. in 1999. The box also included the stars and moons shower curtain that Suzy used to have in her Powell Ave apartment. That was before we moved in together in 1997. I was shocked to find this stuff. Right there on the shelf of the linen closet, in plain view. Taking. Up. Space. Shock subsided to glee. I Love getting rid of stuff I’m not using. It’s my…

We were driving with Jasper and Simon, not sure where, when Jasper suddenly piped up, “Mom, Dad, are you voting for Dalton McGuinty?” Jasper’s seven. He can read. And there are signs all over our riding. The Premier lives about 3 blocks from us. “What do you think we should do?” we asked. Jasper didn’t hesitate. “I hate Dalton McGuinty. He raised my taxes.” Jasper watches a lot of hockey on TV. And John Tory has good ads (if not good advisors).

I’m really proud of my headstands. I’m damn good at them. I also enjoy fire – just about anywhere. I used to set the backyard ablaze in PEI, back when all the neighbours had two-acre yards that had been converted from potato fields. We lost more tree seedlings to wildfires! Nowadays I’d love to have a backyard fire here in Ottawa, but it’s subject to bylaws and is officially known as a “controlled burn” – and you need a permit. ( sigh ) I fear that Jasper will never experience the searing joy of beating a line of grassfire back with an aluminum spade. This weekend I discovered that cranberry…

I tried to take some time off today. But the chair at the Wild Oat was stiff and my latte sour and, well, it was too hot for October 5. I’m no fan of Ottawa winter, but a little crisp fall air would be nice. I needed some air. So I walked. Right into a sex shop. Venus Envy is on Lisgar Street, a one-way turn off Bank right downtown, just across from the Bible Shop. Seriously. The good folks at Venus Envy describe themselves online as an “educational erotic shop,” which is probably just another way of saying, “No, we don’t sell raunchy porn and our carpet doesn’t smell.”…

A friend called this week. She said, “Is that a new kid in the background?” We hadn’t spoken for about 5 years. Yet we picked up where we’d left off. We laughed and talked about life and, well, stuff. We used to do this two nights/week at Cedar’s in Charlottetown, a little lebanese place just up from Province House in PEI. Back then on Fridays and Saturdays I’d get off work at Maclean’s grocery smelling like leaded gas ($3/hour pumping and packing in a one-cashier country store) and drive to town to meet Tara. We’d drink coffee and smoke Benson and Hedges menthol and eat pita sandwiches with orange cheese,…

The nice thing about writing here, now, is that this site has been dead for months, so I can pretty well say what I want without consequence (or being read). I have a thing for Claire Martin. And today she’s wearing a Ms. Strombolopolous t-shirt. That’s just not right. Suzy knows all this, including the weird (and innocent) obsession. She sent me a link a few months ago with “bye bye” as the subject line, when Claire announced she was moving to Vancouver. Suzy hadn’t read all the way to the end of the CBC announcement, so I was pleased to see Claire would be back on air this fall…

Returning soon?

Oh, how I want to write My, how I’ve got lots to tell Oh no, I don’t know where to start

I killed a baby mouse today. At first I thought it was dryer lint on the stairs. Then it moved. So I got Puddy. She just looked at it. Turns out she was uninterested because she’d eaten Mama Mouse during the night. Which explains the kerfuffle under our bed at 3:30 am. So when Little Lint Mouse ran down the stairs and scared Suzy out the front door, Puddy still standing by unmoved, I did what any man would do. I tossed a book at it. “My Perfect Life.” In front of my kids. It dropped the poor thing like a piece of Montreal overpass. One little paw stuck out…

Fed up with the city? Looking for an escape? Head for the hills, in Prince Edward Island. Yep, Walden Cabin isn’t just a web site (or a historic site in the US). You don’t need a passport to get there, or your own bedding and cutlery. Enjoy the outdoor shower, claw foot tub, total privacy and, well, a holiday. Rent Walden Cabin this summer. A week or two in the woods will do you good. Call me at 613.552.7362 if you’d like to know more.

Nice to be back. Thanks for stopping by. I got sucked into Facebook about a month ago. I honestly didn’t know I had 60-some friends. Yet, strangely, I’m not comforted by the fact. Sure, it’s nice to know where Don is, and what he’s up to. The last memory I have of Don (not his real name), was in a ditch along a grain field in PEI. We’d found some cast-off Playboys next to an old plow after church and were positively giddy. That was 1975. Now he’s a plumber. I wonder if he subscribes. Or if he walks along tractor paths with his kids. And even remembers. These days…

The Barenaked Ladies were awesome tonight. They’ve been around for 19 years and are really green. Ed Robertson liked the idea of handing out CFLs to folks who attend their shows. We’ll see if that works out. For now, we have a new snap for the growing Porchlight celeb gallery. Oh, and I also met Stephane Dion today (photo tomorrow), who spontaneously changed a bulb in his Parliament Hill office during my visit. Don’t tell the National Capital Commission! Last year the federal agency responsible for heritage buildings in the capital actually said “energy efficient lighting is inappropriate for heritage buildings.” One Change feels good tonight.

I often find myself in awkward situations when it comes to official protocol. Sometimes it works for me. Sometimes not. I’ve spent weeks going to meetings with duct tape holding up the hem of my dress pants. Those who know me well are familiar with my fear of “spontaneous hem failure.” Yesterday I found myself in a similar situation. It’s February in Ottawa. The roads and sidewalks are a slushy mess. On my way to Parliament Hill to meet Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, I decided at the last moment to stash a fancy pair of shoes in the Porchlight bag I’d brought for the Leader. A minute before my meeting,…