Monday, July 28, 2008

The best medicine

It's good to laugh. In fact, it's about time we laughed more often. I don't mean a chuckle or a giggle. I mean REALLY laugh. Sometimes life requires an injection of humour. In the spirit of optimism and finding the ticklish side of life, I share this press release from the Ottawa Police. It's good to see even they can have some fun with strange incidents.

Police arrest iguana for impeding traffic

The Ottawa Police Service reports the following: On 25 July, at approx. 04:15 hrs, Ottawa Police responded to a complaint about a three foot iguana on the roadway in the area of Fisher at Malibu Terrace. Four officers worked together to corral the subject, using a makeshift lasso to effect a safe capture.
The identity of the iguana is yet to be confirmed. He is a colourful mix of green, yellow and brown. The iguana has been conveyed without incident to an interim iguana-friendly location pending a hopeful reunion with its family members (owners).
Anyone who has information on the identity of this iguana, or who is the rightful guardian, is asked to contact....

CBC picked up the story. If you check the right column, you'll find video too.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Kaboom!

So the lower south stands at Frank Clair (aka Lansdowne) are gone. They imploded this morning around 8 a.m. Why this didn't wake me up is a bit of a mystery. Guess being ill and exhausted will do that, though.

You can see the video of the implosion here.

Now the question of what to do with Lansdowne still seems up in the air a bit. The potential problem is that there's been way to much emphasis on bringing a CFL team back. Teams didn't make a go of it in the past, what makes everyone certain they'll be able to make a go of it now? (Rough Riders folded in 1996 and the Renegades were suspended in 2006 - will three times really be a charm?) Focusing on the return of a team is dicey, given what's happened in the past. Heck, even the Sens have had a rough go of it, financially. If the CFL team folds again, what do we do with the infrastructure left over? Lansdowne is a great piece of land that could probably use a whole different development scheme. Of course, that would likely require a city council that is less fractured and actually has a strong leader who's capable of building consensus. Given that requirement, there's probably not much hope for doing something fun at Lansdowne.

As an aside, is the Ex ever going to move to its Albion location?

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Speaking of firemen

The Cumberland Heritage Village Museum held a Firefighters and Protective Services Day over the weekend. Emergency crews took apart a car, ran some obstacles, and taught kids how to use a fire extinguisher. Despite being a relatively cool day, some decided to hose each other down.

Friday, July 11, 2008

The fireman spin

Here's a quick pole dancing update, since peeps are curious and I had my first class last night.

The sum it up, from a fitness perspective: there are muscles I forgot I had that are aching this morning. It totally worked the thighs, abs, arms and back. Most especially the thighs, arms and back. The instructor said it really works the abs too, but I didn't notice it as much. One thing that should be noted is the potential for bruising. It's probably just a practice thing and over time it won't be much of an issue.

Now the non-fitness perspective: despite the name of the move we did near the end, I doubt any fireman (I know, "firefighter" is PC, but I believe there's nothing PC about pole dancing, so screw it) has ever done that with a pole, or at least done that and survived the inevitable harassment that would soon follow. The class also included some hair whipping and butt slapping. No joke! We actually had a short routine nailed by the end of the first session. The class, which only has six students, included lots of laughing and clapping. Perhaps that makes it good for body and soul.

As for the colour of the poles... they're silver.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Move over Monet

Happy Birthday Canada!

For once I skipped the downtown crowd and instead played with my camera along the Rideau River. Got to watch the black swans, lots of ducks, a number of red winged blackbirds and, of course, gulls and pigeons. Probably should've taken some feed. It might've made getting pics of the swans easier. I also grabbed a shot of the water lilies because I thought the flower was pretty. For fun, I might run it through some photoshop filters and make it look like the work of a French impressionist.




The day didn't provide just art, it also offered some unusual music. Sitting on some rocks playing with settings and lenses, I heard some tinkling above me. Looked up to see a bird perched on a branch. The delicate chime was coming from a fishing lure dangling from the branch, presumably lost after someone cast overhead instead of sidearm. Each time the bird moved, the branch bobbed and the sunbleached lure sang out a sweet tune.