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!