Hope I can rub Magni's head!!

Yippee!!! Yayyyy!!! Wooo hooo!!!! Yahoo!!! Dilana and Magni are coming to town!!! If you have not seen ‘Rock Star Supernova’, you’re probably wondering, who the heck are Dilana and Magni. However, if you are a Rock Star Supernova fan, this is big news!!! The Thirsty Toad at Bank and Riverside is hosting a really cool all ages outdoor show, with colorful Dilani and super cool Magni on Saturday Oct 7th, details at www.thirstytoad.com. Of course, BOB FM has tickets, so keep listening! I can’t wait! Its an acoustic show, but Dilana’s voice is so powerful, you’ll probably hear her all the way up the Rideau River. Cool! And I hope Magni sings the Jimi Hendrix tune he did on ‘Rock Star’…let me stand next to your fire…
I hope I get a chance to meet Magni, he was always my favorite rocker on the show. And I hear if you rub his bald head, it brings you good luck.

How would you like to have some laughs AND support a great cause at the same time? Now on sale, a hilarious new book called ‘I’m Not Wearing Pants, True Tales from Canadian Radio Gals’. This book is a fun compilation of stories from women in radio, (including some classic embarrassing moments on the air). I have a story in the book, and I have to congratulate the editor on a job well done. It couldn’t have been easy editing my 200 page story into 3 pages. True Tales was the brainchild of Kelsi Jordan from Country 105 radio in Calgary! Way to go, Kelsi! A portion of the proceeds goes to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, and you can get your copy at www.theradiogirl.com!

I drove by the Prime Minister’s residence the other day, and noticed that the landscaping crew was working away just outside the gates. One worker had a giant leaf blower that was quite powerful, and it was really doing do its job, sending leaves in one direction at a hundred miles an hour. Then I noticed that the worker was blowing the leaves from the Prime Minister’s residence over to the Governor General’s residence. Hmm. Reminds me of that old saying. ‘He who blows leaves last laughs first’. Or maybe I just made that up.

I have a neighbour who has fake flowers in his flower beds. I made this observation in the spring, when the snow was just starting to recede and huge plastic blooms started to appear through the snow. Pinks, reds, yellows, whites, all colors. I think they are fake peonies, to be exact. Anyway, these plastic flowers continued to brighten this person’s garden all season long. I drove by this same neighbour’s place the other day, and something in his driveway caught my eye. He had cases and cases of fake logs just delivered. While many are ordering a cord of wood for the winter, my neighbour with the fake flowers in the garden has ordered a cord of fake logs for his fireplace. I just hope he doesn’t have a fake fireplace.

Revenge of the Socks

Ok, so its here!! This week, the new Tvtropolis game show, ‘Inside the Box’ debuted. Its on every weeknight at 7pm. I don’t know which episode I’m on, it could be tonight, it could be three weeks from now, it could be on the cutting room floor. I’m actually quite frightened about watching myself on this tv trivia game show, as I very much ‘crashed and burned’. The fact that I never saw one episode of ‘Melrose Place’ certainly came back to haunt me. But the worst part of all, is that my biggest challenge wasn’t necessarily remembering the name of a tv show, it was trying to remember the names of the other two contestants. As it turns out, this is a rather integral part of the game. Who knew??

Have you watched many of the new tv shows? Outside of ‘Inside the Box’, I’ve seen Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip with Matthew Perry. I thought it was a great premiere episode. If you saw it too, did you happen to catch the slight ‘shot’ that was taken at the city of Vancouver? In one scene the actors were talking about saving money by shooting a movie in Vancouver, then Vancouver was shot down, because it doesn’t look like any other city, never did, blah blah. Its no secret that American show biz technical crews are peeved about losing jobs to Canadians, as more and more productions are being shot in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and even Ottawa! Anyway, on ‘Studio 60’ I thought it was an incredibly obvious shot at Vancouver. The ironic thing was that Matthew Perry, an OTTAWAN, was in the scene. Ok that’s my rant for now.

Speaking of productions filmed here in Ottawa, I got a call from Meagan at ‘Mountain Road Productions’, letting me know about a new tv show that was shot in and around the Ottawa valley. Its called ‘Be Real’, and its on at 7 pm every Wednesday on Tvtropolis. (yes, just before ‘Inside the Box’!) ‘Be Real’ is a fun, off the cuff show where regular people get their own tv show for a day, it’s a bit of a parody on reality shows. It was shot in Ottawa, Perth, Carleton Place, and soon to be Kingston. Check out ‘Be Real’, that may be your neighbour or co-worker on tv!

What’s the capital of Peru? Whats the name of the new Guns ‘n Roses album that Axl Rose has promised for five years? What breed of dog doesn’t bark? If you know the answers to any or all of these questions, or none at all, either way, then this is for you!!! World Trivia Night!! On Friday Nov 3rd, the Aberdeen Pavilion turns into the world’s biggest trivia game and it’s a ton of fun. Plus, it’s a fundraiser for ‘Champions for Children’! Get a team together and register at www.worldtrivianight.com. You can have up to 10 people on your team, so it’s a good idea to find people who have certain strengths, ie, one person is a geography nut, one is a pop culture fanatic, one knows all about sports, etc. If you need someone who is an expert on cleaning supplies, from Windex to Fantastik, that would be me. I also know quite a bit about dairy cattle.


I have some sort of strange medical condition. I’m not sure whether or not I should see a doctor. About a year ago, I bought about 20 pairs of socks. They were all exactly the same, except different colors. I wear them almost every day. The tops of the socks are elasticized, as all socks are. A couple of days ago, I wasn’t wearing my socks, but I noticed that on each of my legs, that would be, both legs, right in my skin is the indentation of the pattern of my socks. I thought nothing of it at the time, but I decided to stop wearing my socks to see what would happen. And here it is, two days later, and the indentation of my socks is still there. I fear that a year of wearing the same style of socks over and over again for a year has left my upper ankles with permanent sock marks. So let this be a warning to you. If you take my advice just once, let it be this: always rotate different styles of socks. Don’t let this happen to you.

Ths is a Non Celebrity Smoking Section

Its been a pretty tame Toronto Film Festival, so thank goodness for Sean Penn!! We can always count on Sean Penn to stir things up a bit. At a press conference in a Toronto hotel, to promote his new film, ‘All the Kings Men’, Sean Penn did the unthinkable! He smoked a couple of cigarettes! This unforgivable offence has now landed Sean Penn in hot water with our Minister of Health, Jim Watson. And a photograph of Sean Penn with said cigarette dangling from his mouth has been picked up by newspapers all over the world. (I’m not a smoker, and I agree with the smoking ban). I find this story amusing for a different reason. We allow celebrities to get away with just about everything. We just don’t allow them to get away with smoking. Even Keith Richards was cited for smoking on stage in Glasgow Scotland a couple of weeks ago. It is not acceptable for even our crustiest rockers to smoke. We let celebrities get the best section of the restaurant, we dutifully respect celebrities’ security, they can bump you from your honeymoon suite if they want the entire floor of a hotel, but they just can’t smoke. If we can’t smoke, they can’t smoke. Its become the one thing that regular folk and ‘celebrities’ have in common. It doesn’t matter if you’re Madonna, Bono, or The Pope. You can’t smoke in a public place in Ontario. Although I doubt the Pope will face this problem.

Congratulations to Lukas Rossi of Toronto, new lead singer of ‘Supernova’! Wow, Toronto’s JD Fortune won the Rock Star contest last year, now fronting INXS, and here we have yet another Toronto boy taking the prize. Is there something in the water in Toronto? I wonder if Lukas Rossi’s hairstyle will be the new trend. Black hair, big white stripe down the middle. Just like a skunk. Thick mascara, eyeliner, even lip gloss. It’s a good thing Lukas won this contest to be in a rock band. Don’t know that he would’ve fit in at a 9 to 5 office job!

Isn’t it great that we are getting some relief at the gas pumps? I got gas today at 86.9, what a deal! But my happiness quickly turned to aggravation, when I couldn’t actually ‘leave’ the gas station. In the downtown core, taxi cabs pull into gas stations to grab a coffee and donut and newspaper, and they park right in the middle lane between the two gas pump islands. Then the guy at the gas pump in front of you also goes inside the gas station superstore and rents a movie, gets a bag of ice, picks up some lottery tickets. The woman at the pump behind you has disappeared too. This is what I call the ‘gas station box-in’. Does this happen to you, too? At least while I was waiting for someone to let me leave the gas station, I got to read my newspaper with the big news story about Sean Penn smoking.

Canadian Idol’s Eva Avila from Gatineau is 19 years old, and it was revealed this week that she is dating another Canadian Idol finalist, Chad Doucette, who is 17 years old. Way to go, Chad!

And speaking of cute new couples, Liberal MP Belinda Stronach is now dating Toronto Maple Leafs’ Tie Domi. Insert your own comments here.

Congratulations to Ottawa’s Dawn Ferrell, the winner of the BOB FM/Corner Gas contest. Dawn flies out to Regina and joins the cast of Corner Gas to be our very own entertainment correspondent, and next season, she will have a ‘walk-on’ role on this popular CTV comedy! We did chat with Dawn on the morning show, and it wouldn’t surprise us if Dawn becomes a regular on ‘Corner Gas’. She is one of the bubbliest people ever. There are people who are just not ‘morning people’, and then there are people like Dawn. Listen to ‘the Morning After’ on BOB FM this Monday, and catch Dawn’s first reports from the set of Corner Gas in Dog River Saskatchewan. I bet she makes a big impression on Brent Butt.

We are still taking votes for Ottawa’s most annoying animated computer voice. The nominees are: ‘Emily’ from Bell Canada, the Rogers guy, Claire from Ticketmaster, the Bell area code lady, and my personal favourite, the female computer voice at Loblaws self-scanning checkout. The one who reminds you, after each and every scanned item, to ‘please put the item in the bag’. Loblaws also sells tv’s and patio furniture. Just try to put that in a bag.

Congratulations to Chantal Dugas and her dog ‘Cruzer’!! Cruzer was chosen Ottawa’s top dog, and he’ll lead the pack at the Iams Wiggle Waggle Walkathon for the Humane Society this Sunday at the Arboretum! Cruzer is a five year old border collie who regularly visits the elderly, is a friend to Foster kids, he participates in agility, and loves to swim. You can meet Cruzer and about 1500 other dogs too, at the Walk this Sunday!! Get your pledge form on the pet friendly section of this website.

Thank you so much to ‘Canada’s first lady’, Laureen Harper, for being one of the judges of the Top Dog contest. The judging took place at 24 Sussex Drive, where I very carefully held my coffee cup. Laureen was gracious enough to take us on a tour of the Prime Minister’s residence, and its absolutely breath-taking. One décor feature, however, is a bit different. The carpeting on the grand staircase is a faux leopard print. This was installed by one of our Prime Minister’s wives. Hmmmmm. Think I’ll keep her identity a secret.

Humour in the workplace is a good idea. Every workplace has at least one person who you can count on to pull the odd prank. He or she is the jokester in the group. Most likely to provide the harmless fun that brings employees together for a couple of guffaws around the water cooler. This week, my hat’s off to the Ikea employee who decided that the 175 million copies of the 2007 Ikea catalogue needed a little ‘spicing up’. Not sure if this guy still has a job, but he sure found a new way to promote Ikea. Check it out for yourself! Look for the tv watching dog. I’ll just leave it at that.

Not to sound like a broken record, but summer sure went fast this year. Is it just my imagination, or did everything happen at once: first day of school, cool weather, and a red maple tree on my street. I could swear that on Labour Day Monday, that tree was green. The next day it was completely red. But, hey, if you’re a regular Costco shopper, they’ve had their Hallowe’en stuff out since June.

I saw a story on CNN the other day, about a growing trend : more and more parents are bribing their kids to get ‘A’s in school. One ‘A’, ten bucks, two ‘A’s’, the kid gets twenty bucks, three ‘A’s, uh…hmmmmm.
I never got paid to get ‘A’s. Maybe if I did get cold hard cash to get ‘A’s’ in school, I would not be working in radio. Just kidding.

Besides the youngsters headed back to school this week, the career students are back at it too. We all know one. That one friend who is in their 30’s, maybe even 40’s, and I’m sure there are some in their 50’s, who go have gone to university their entire life. It started fresh out of high school, 3 years business admin, then 3 years in communication, then onto the sciences for a while, a couple of years of Greco-roman history, and now they are fully enrolled in architecture but seriously considering aviation technology. I admire this tenacity and dedication to higher learning. But at some point they have to move out of their parents’ house!

If you’ve been following ‘Rock Star Supernova’ (my personal favourite reality show) its starting to look more and more like Lukas is going to win this thing. The show was originally edited to make Lukas look like an aloof, glum guy who made no connection with any of the other singers. But over the past few weeks, we see Lukas playing basketball. Lukas playing ping pong. And last night on Rock Star, previously taped footage of Lukas skipping rope with the others. I think that’s skipping rope game is called ‘double dutch’. The heavy black mascara, the tattoos, the hair colored like a skunk, yep, that’s Lukas, skipping rope. Supernova wants us to love him. Because he’s their new lead singer. Unless, of course, I’m wrong.

My husband called me on his cell phone while driving across town today because he saw a cardinal flying over Johnston Road. I know that there is talk of banning cell phones while driving, but I’m not totally convinced that we need a ban. And I think this little story exemplifies the need for those important phone calls.
Have you spotted an Ottawa Senator lately? Needless to say , they are starting to re-group and they have been all over town making appearances at golf tourney’s, private fundraisers, fishing tournaments. The hockey season is almost here!!! Yay!!!! Can’t wait. I still have my fully inflated Ottawa Senators thunder-sticks. And now that I have my life-size Mike Fisher cardboard cut-out, I think I’ll place him right on the couch for good luck during the tv broadcasts of Sens games. Go Sens go!