Tag: Wine Wire TV

Random Wednesday Night Daddy Ramblings


Good Wednesday evening folks!

It’s late. Everyone in my household is sleeping and that means it is time to get online and get posting. I had a wonderfully busy and productive day today and I wanted to get some thoughts out for you to comment on before this day (not my day) comes to an end.

1) First off, I had a wonderful time at the #TDParentalLeave discussion. I was ready for the discussion, as a long (long) time TD Canada Trust customer and as a parent who has taken parental leave (2 of them).  The other bloggers were the cream of the crop in the Canadian blogging scene and we all left with a clearer idea of why TD wanted to get the 6 of us together and why they are already one of the leaders in Social Media for banks.  I also learned that I am in the minority of people under 80-years-old who still visits branches.  More on this in the very near future I’m sure.

2) Lance Armstrong stepped down from his massively successful charity “Livestrong”.  The message is getting muddied now that he’s being made an example of and I’m of two minds here.  First, yes he cheated and allegedly he was the ring leader of a massive doping scheme for years, but so were his teammates who happily accepted the praise and money that came from placing high, even winning and being on his team.  Then as soon as things turned sour they were just as quick to stab him in the back and blame him.  On the other hand, if the organizers of the Tour wanted to strip Lance of his wins and give the title to the next “clean” rider they would have to go back something like 76 racers in some cases.  Then they would have to test that racer’s samples with today’s technologies to see if he’s clean.  That speaks volumes about the sport which is clearly tainted.   There is no doubt in my mind that the Tour like the Olympics has credibility issues and either everyone dopes or no one does.  But at the end of the day, Lance won and he battled through cancer to win and whether he was the best rider or the best doper he still raced and won.

3) The Teacher’s Union in Ontario representing the public school teachers has asked the teachers to provide the least amount of information possible on the student’s progress reports.  The same leader who commented a few years back about how having these reports was going to make the teacher’s job easier and help the students and parents succeed. 

These same teachers are withholding extracurricular activities and telling the students that they should be blaming the government and not them and while I’m certainly not up on all the details of the issue here, I do know that the other teaching boards signed agreements with the government and that this work-to-rule is over the right to strike and possibly a wage freeze. 

I’m not going to jump into my anti-union talk or point out that I don’t have a right to strike or a guaranteed wage increase and even if I save my company a million dollars they still don’t have to give me an increase, but what really stands out here is that; 1) the teachers are putting the kids in the middle of this.  They absolutely are and that is not right.  2) Since Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty stepped down as leaders (something a Conservative government would be slaughtered for doing) and prorogued parliament there is nothing that the government can do to counteract this message other than have a press conference and ask for it to be rescinded.  The timing of this ask by the union smells fishy and is not going to score them any points in the public relations battle they are waging with the government.

4) More on this topic is coming as well, but I attended the launch of Wine Wire, www.winewire.ca, a Canadian business aimed at not only delivering the best wines to your front door but also educating you on some of them through Wine Wire TV.   If you’re a wine connoisseur this concept works because it gets great wines to your door and if you’re not much of a wine-expert as, say, I am, then this is an absolute must visit because the Wine Wire TV explains what to expect when tasting the wines they feature and having now tasted some of them, I can say the description matches the taste.  A great concept.  Please support Canadian businesses!!

5) I’m a little annoyed here… When we moved into our new home 3 years ago, my in-laws brought us some pumpkins from cottage country to line our front stairs.  We averaged 20 of them, all sizes, and the big ones I carved and the smaller ones I would bake with once the holiday was over.  This year we decided to downsize and were thrilled when we received 3 big ones and 5 gourds.  So fat this year, one gourd was eaten by squirrels, and the other was taken by a squirrel up a tree (we saw the theft in person) and when Linus scared the critter, he dropped the gourd which fell into the bushes.  Gone. 

The annoying part???

Our neighbours have decided to copy our pumpkin stairs idea this year except they all have WAY more pumpkins than we do, so when I (and others) look at our pathetic stairs it makes me want to run out and buy more pumpkins to keep up with the Jones’.  It’s also not just one neighbour either.  It’s the one across the street and the two beside us.  I think more orange ones and some white ones will show them. 

The pictue, by the way… Not our house this year.  Possibly in years gone by – minus the flowers – but certainly not this year. 

6) Things Daddy overheard:

a) Stewie to Linus is a very serious tone; “You know what Linus… We’re the fastest people we know!”

b) After Boo screamed twice, I reminded her that; “There is NO yelling allowed in my house!” to which she immediately responded with; “This is not just YOUR house, this is OUR house too.  There are 5 of us that live here!!!”

7) Potato or Potatoe?  Last year we planted three types of potatoes in our front garden and got a ton of potatoes in the fall.  We did not get around to planting and more this year but guess what happens if you miss digging out the ones from previous years???  If you said more grow, you would be correct as this year we just harvested about 100 potatoes.  Very cool and the kids love digging for them.

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