Dogs Would Rather Eat Cheese Than Say Cheese

What a great day!! It was so amazing to see all the wonderful supporters of the Ottawa Humane Society and of course the dogs too – for the 19th annual Humane Society Wiggle Waggle Walk-a-thon! I had a great time sharing MC duties with A Channel’s Kurt Stoodley. Give yourselves a big pat on the back (or on the head), over $127,000 raised for the shelter!! I wish I could have taken a photo of each and every dog at the event. But dogs just don’t sit still! Lol….Anyway, here are some pictures from the day…enjoy!

The Arboretum Goes to the Dogs

We’re wiggling and waggling again!! Pictured above: Ottawa Police Chief Vern White and Hudson (my dog adopted from the Humane Society). Please join HONOURARY CHAIR of this year’s Humane Society Wiggle Waggle Walkathon, Ottawa Police Chief Vern White, along with about 1300 dogs and even more people this Sunday at the Arboretum! Chief White has two dogs, Macy and Ari. Ari was in fact adopted from the Ottawa Humane Society! I hope to get some photos of Chief White and his dog at the ‘Wiggle Waggle’ this Sunday. It’s a great day for the whole family and a very important fundraiser for the Humane Society, so please download a pledge sheet and we’ll see you Sunday!! All info is on the ‘pet friendly’ section of this website, or go to http://www.ottawahumane.ca/!

I was wearing white pants yesterday and someone told me that you’re not allowed to wear white pants after Labour Day. Is that still true? The person who told me I couldn’t wear white pants after Labour Day was wearing shorts and sandals. So, I could’ve worn a bathing suit to work, with a hoodie, high heels, and leg warmers, and that would have all been fine, as long as I wasn’t wearing white pants because it was after Labour Day.

Ottawa Senators goalie Ray Emery got into a scuffle on the 417 yesterday while driving his Hummer to hockey practice. Isn’t that now considered the official start of the Senators new season?

Being such a tv-aholic, I’m really looking forward to the new tv season. But there are so many programs that I can’t watch because I didn’t watch all the episodes last year, so I have no idea what’s going on…like ‘Heroes’, ‘Lost’, ‘Prison Break’….and I know I’ve been given umpteen chances to watch the entire season of these shows…but there just aren’t enough hours in the day. In today’s world you can watch tv shows on the internet, on your phone, your ipod, there are even refrigerators with tv’s built into the door. We were visiting a friend in Barrhaven and his neighbour had a big HD tv in the garage. He was watching a re-run of ‘24’. Must be catching up before the new fall season.

Ottawa Citizen movie critic and reporter for Bob’s ‘Morning After’, Jay Stone, is at the Toronto Film Festival. He has to watch a whack of movies, write reviews, the usual stuff. But on occasion he’s also in the same room as Brad Pitt! I don’t think he’s as impressed by that as much as I am. Come to think of it, I recently had to remind Jay that he once dined next to Angelina Jolie. He had forgotten about that. Jay is more impressed with someone who has a kitchen with recessed pot lights.

When in Rome...Actually, We Didn't Go to Rome

Here are some pictures from my trip to Europe. Top left to right: scared guy in Bellagio Italy, 'Cows' near Switzerland/France border, 'Cow' in Lucerne Switzerland, 'Swans' in Lucerne Switzerland, 'Cows' near Eiger Mountain Switzerland, 'Goats' near Eiger Mountain Switzerland, and 'Cat' in Amsterdam.

As you can see, I saw quite a bit of Europe, all the tourist attractions and landmarks! I've been told that thousands of people have seen the Cat of Amsterdam.

LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THEM!!!!!

JUST LOOK AT WHAT YOU CAN FIND IN THE MARKET!!!!!!!

Just got back from my first-ever trip to Europe! It was a lot of fun. I’ll talk a bit more about that later. Right now I’d like to highlight the 2 giant vegetables I bought right here in the byward market this week. The cucumber, which JR is holding up for the camera, is over 15 inches long, and the zucchini is 25 inches long and weighs about 15 pounds. That's Hammer holding that baby up for all to see. And the market vendors tell me there’s a whole lot more where that came from! Can you believe it?

Since Everyone Else is Gone Too.......

I'm on holidaze!
see you in late August!
- sandy

Say!!! Thats Great Corn!!!!

Is everyone in the world on holidays right now? It seems like every time I send an email to someone, I get the ‘out of office reply’! Even when I send an email to friends who don’t have jobs.
Is it really possible to completely step away from your email? Even while you’re on holidays, if you see a computer, are you not just a ‘bit’ tempted to log on for a second and check your messages? I try and try and try to ignore my email when I’m on vacation. But what if someone is sending me a message that Bruce Springsteen is putting on a secret show tonight at Barrymores? Or someone has sent me a really cute video montage of dogs doing funny things? Or a recipe? Or a backyard photo of a woodpecker? Admittedly sometimes the curiosity is just too much. I think I proved that when I paid 100 pesos to access a computer in an internet café in Isla Mujeres Mexico. Yes, I did check my email that day. However, I did not RETURN any email. That would lead people to think I was, in fact, checking my email.

Zowie! Gadzooks! I never thought this would happen to me………..
I have always been the ‘last’ person people have trusted with any kind of cooking tip. However, I had to share this one with listeners and since then….the feedback has been amazing. A friend of ours, Bruce Simpson (and his lovely fiancée Sara) joined us for dinner at our place last week. At one time Bruce owned a restaurant, and he really knows his way around the kitchen. So he took over in MY kitchen, which made me quite happy!!!! For an appetizer, Bruce served us each a piece of fresh local corn on the cob, and it was the best corn I’d ever tasted! Here’s what he did:
-husked the corn
-splashed on a bit of soya sauce and fresh lime juice (don’t raise an eyebrow, just do it, trust me!!)
- MICROWAVED on high power for about 5 minutes (this cooks 2 – 3 cobs of corn, depending on your microwave)
- Once cooked, he rolled it in melted butter and served it to us and WOW!!! Its was unbelievable! Bruce is of the opinion that corn-on-the-cob is the ONLY food that actually tastes BETTER by being microwaved!! This new piece of information has since been welcomed by two groups of people: the ‘COOK CORN IN BOILING SALTED WATER FOR 20 MINUTES’ people…and the ‘NEED TO EAT SOMETHING FAST’ people. I will never boil corn again. And I may not eat anything else this summer. Except ice cream.

Are you going to see the new Simpsons movie? I can’t wait to see it. I was kinda disappointed that they didn’t have the ‘midnight premiere’ of ‘The Simpsons Movie’. I thought they did that every time a movie was so highly anticipated. I definitely would have been one of the people in line at the theatre to see the movie at 12:01 am. Like just about everyone else, I love the Simpsons. My favourite character tends to change from Bart to Homer then back to Bart then over to Marge, and often my favourite character is Lisa. Maybe our favourite Simpson character is determined by who we can most identify with. That must be why I love Milhouse. So mis-understood!

Everyone Loves A Good Mime Artist

Fans of Bruce Springsteen, it’s the news we’ve all been waiting for! OK..it’s the rumour we’ve all been waiting for. According to www.backstreets.com, the official fan site for ‘the Boss’ (which he fully endorses) , rumour has it that Bruce is going to have a new album out in the fall WITH the ‘E Street Band’ (yay!!!) and a North American tour will follow! I know people who have seen Bruce Springsteen in concert about 150 times. I feel like a novice, having seen the Boss only around 26 times. I used to have a lot of the concert ticket stubs in my purse, but my purse was stolen in Montreal so the thief has them now. He’s probably bragging about being at those Bruce Springsteen shows, showing his friends the ticket stubs. What a liar.

I’m glad to see that the new concert festival site, LeBreton Flats, is going to be used for more than Bluefest shows. The Scorpions are playing at LeBreton Flats at the end of August! I’ve never seen the Scorpions but they have a huge following. And if people were complaining about the noise at Bluesfest…………

Bob’s ‘Movies on the Beach’ is back at Westboro Beach on Friday July 27th and the movie, as chosen by Bob’s listeners, will be ‘Planet of the Apes’. The original 1968 version with Charleton Heston. Critics still say that this movie has one of the best endings of all time. It is a bit of a surprise ending. I won’t give it away if you haven’t seen the movie. It involves Suzanne Pleshette. Just kidding.

It’s the middle of July and I was at a store today looking for a pair of shorts. I was pretty happy to see that the shorts were on sale! Half price! But then I saw why. They needed room for the new fall and winter clothes coming in. Its July!!! I haven’t even taken the snow brush out of my car yet from last winter.

There’s a mime in the byward market who has had the same shtick for years now. He arrives at his spot on George Street, then uses the reflection of a store-front window to apply white paint all over his face. Then he stands really still, while grasping onto a badminion racquet. Or maybe it’s a squash racquet, I’m not really sure. He stands there like a statue, holding the racquet in mid-swing. Doesn’t move. Except I’ve seen him break for snacks or lunch, or just walk around to loosen up his legs. I don’t know how much money he makes standing like a statue holding a badminton racquet. I hope he makes enough to afford a birdie and a net someday.

Bluesfest is the Bestfest!

Last night was my third trip to Bluesfest and I just can’t stop raving about how much fun it is. And how LUCKY we are to have this fantastic festival right here in Ottawa! So far I’ve seen Bob Dylan, Joel Plaskett, the White Stripes, Steve Miller, and various bands on some of the smaller stages, and tonight its Blue Rodeo…..tomorrow night, INXS….phew- and to top it all off, ‘The Village People’ on Sunday! How can you beat that? I absolutely close my ears when I hear people complain about Bluesfest. Don’t get me wrong. I like to complain about lots of things, but I never complain about Bluesfest. Again this year the ‘lawn chair people’ are battling the ‘standers’. People are also complaining about the line-ups, the location, the noise, the weather, the sun’s glare off the river, the grass not being soft enough, the beer cup lids not being tight enough, the people in the VIP section looking too happy, the hand-washing water outside the porta-potties not being cold enough, the sun going down too early, the sun going down too late, why are bikes not allowed inside the venue, the tiny tom donuts have too much sugar on them, there’s mustard on my shoe and I didn’t put it there. Geez!! We have the most amazing festival in North America right in our backyard, so stop complaining!!! Now I’m complaining about all the complaining. See, I told you, I also like to complain.


Hey, if you’re looking for something fun to do on Sunday besides Bluesfest, head out to Almonte!! Not only is Almonte the top spot for UFO sighting, its also the host of ‘Celtfest’! Its all about live entertainment with jigs and reels and all things ‘celtic’, food, beer, and its absolutely free, (not the food and beer, but the admission) at Gemmill Park from noon to 8 pm! Senators Army Captain Ryan Guthrie is one of the organizers so its got to be good! For more info go to www.almonteceltfest.com! Who knows….after a few hours at ‘Celtfest’, you too may just see a UFO! Let me know if you do! I haven’t heard a good UFO story for a while.

I am now an officially ordained minister. I filled out all the proper paperwork at www.themonastery.org, site of the Universal Life Church Monastery. I have received my certificate with my new title, Reverend Sandy Sharkey. I now have the right to perform baptisms, weddings, any legal ceremony I choose, with the exception of circumcision. For that, I would need to fill out more forms.
You know that expression, ‘if you love your tv so much, why don’t you marry it’? Or…’if you love your truck so much, why don’t you marry it’….etc…well, now you can! Let me know if you’d like me to marry you to someone or something. The sky’s the limit with the Universal Life Church. Or, better yet, go on their website and fill out the paperwork, then perform the wedding yourself if you like! All the best!

Doe! A Deer! Two female Deer!

Bam Bam Baby # 1 Bam Bam Baby # 2

Remember back in December, when the Ontario Ministry of the Environment seized Bam Bam the deer from Greely couple Bruce and Christina Straby, and brought her to a zoo? (the Strabys had rescued her from the side of the road as a seriously ill tiny day-old fawn) There was no center for wildlife rehabilitation, so the Strabys kept Bam Bam on a hobby farm where she thrived quite nicely, until MNR officers seized her last winter. After much public outcry, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty himself apologized to the Strabys, and Bam Bam was returned to the farm around Christmas-time. Well, lo and behold, for the short time Bam Bam was in a local zoo back in December – she was placed with a male white-tailed deer and guess what….last week she gave birth to twins! I had the pleasure of visiting the little babies this morning. Two tiny female fawns that weigh about 3 pounds each. Bam Bam is an excellent mother, she hides them in the grass and does what comes naturally. I took some photos (using a telephoto so I didn’t disturb them). They must be the cutest critters I have ever seen.


‘Dancing with the Stars’ comes to town next week! Did you watch the show? I tried to pretend that I didn’t watch it, but I did. I must admit I got completely caught up in it, with some pretty hot moves week after week from Apolo Anton Ohno, Layla Ali and Joey Fatone. Even that Beverly Hills 90210 guy was pretty good. Some of the dancers will be here at Scotiabank Place on Tuesday, and…guess what? You have a chance to be on the stage too!! ‘Dancing With the Stars;’ is looking for a local couple to strut their stuff at Scotiabank Place before the big show on Tuesday. Think you know how to ‘cha cha’? Local couples are invited to contact Melissa from the Fred Astaire Dance Studio at 613-567-3237, for a chance to audition this Friday night – and who knows, you could be on ‘Dancing with the Stars’ Ottawa edition next Tuesday! P.s. I will be one of the judges. What qualifies me to be a dance judge? Absolutely nothing. I just like watching it.

‘Animal Fest’ starts on Friday, 3 days of fun at Big Sky Animal Sanctuary in Kemptville. For details, check the website www.bigskyranch.ca! BOB FM will be there on Saturday, there’s a full line-up of entertainment and prizes and food and tons of things going on, not to mention the animals! All proceeds to ‘Animal Fest’ go to help out the unwanted and abused horses, dogs, goats, cats, chickens, and pigs at Big Sky, where animals go for a second chance. I will be the MC on Saturday, and my good buddy Chris Day from CTV Ottawa will be your host on Sunday. We’d love to see you, come on out for a day on the farm!

Busy times here in town, wow, its also Bluesfest time again! I LOVE Bluesfest, there’s something about seeing live bands in the summer under the stars. Some of the best conversations you can ever have are when you are in the porta-potti line-up. I may try to catch Bob Dylan, definitely Blue Rodeo, the Solid Gold Dancers, Ten Years After, and everything I can possibly watch on the Black Sheep Stage. Kudos to the people who fork out the big $$$$ to be in the VIP section right near the stage. Last year a friend of mine tried to sneak in to the VIP section, she’s a wonderful upstanding high tech computer whiz, blonde, beautiful, owns her own home, a car, she’s awesome, and she got turfed from Bluesfest for trying to sneak into the VIP section. Do not try this. I believe she is still banned from Bluesfest

Greetings from Camp Wenterzumihalinenrowboatin

School’s out!!! That has to be in the top 3 ‘best moments ever’, next to a visit from Santa Claus, and finding a 20 dollar bill in your pocket.
After the final school bell, it usually took me about 2 days to announce my first ‘Mom! There’s nothing to do’!
I can’t get over all the day camps that are out there for kids this summer. When I was a kid, camp was camp, the name of the camp started with a ‘W’ and ended with an ‘N’, and there was about 32 letters in between, and there were bunk beds and rowboats and campfires and sunburns and mosquitoes. Nowadays, there are hockey camps, soccer camps, ballet camps, art camps, science fiction camps (uh oh), animal husbandry camps, woodworking camps, cooking camps, swimming camps, weight loss camps, astronomy camps. I would believe it if someone told me that there are also Nintendo camps, and for those in the Ottawa area, how about a ‘light rail transit’ camp.

The first of five BOB FM ‘Movies on the Beach’ is this Friday at dusk, at Westboro Beach, and as voted by the wonderful BOB listeners, there will be a screening of ‘JAWS’! Bring the whole family out, its FREE! We think it’s a good idea to introduce JAWS to a whole new generation of people who will be forever afraid to dip their big toe into an ocean. After I saw JAWS back in 1975, it took me a long time to go swimming in Mississippi Lake near Carleton Place. And my brothers were like everyone else’s brothers who insisted on popping out of the water and acting just like a shark, so the girls would all scream at the top of our lungs. We did this every day for the entire month of July in 1975. It never got boring.

My husband went clothes shopping yesterday. Something he does once every 2 years, whether he needs to or not. He came home with two shirts, that are exactly the same. Same color, same style, exactly the same shirt. Two of them. He liked them so much, he bought two. This was just one of those moments that really define the differences between men and women.

We have a masked marauder at our place. Masked marauder. That’s often the way newspaper columnists describe a raccoon. I woke up Sunday morning to a front lawn covered in garbage. The raccoon had a great night, there were ice cream containers to lick clean, steak bones to gnaw on, potato peels, he even chewed on a Visa bill. But he definitely hit the jackpot with the corn on the cob. Raccoons have hands just like people and they love to eat corn on the cob. Its quite cute, actually, they eat corn on the cob with their hands just like people.
I checked on Youtube to see if there’s a video of a raccoon eating corn, and would you believe, out of 4 million videos, there isn’t ONE of a raccoon eating corn?! Can you believe it? There is, however, a Youtube video of a raccoon eating Kraft cheese slices.

Happy Canada Day! I love Canada Day. What a party. Wear red! Go downtown! Shout and cheer! Hey wait a minute, didn’t we just do this during the Stanley Cup play-offs….

One scream-fest to another

Taking pictures of butterflies is a fun way to get out of house-work or getting an oil change.

Just got back from holidays. The Senators didn’t win the Stanley Cup but I’d like to be the one millionth person to say THANK YOU to the team for so much excitement. I had to take holidays just to recover from all the screaming and the shouting. Maybe I shouldn’t scream and shout quite that much.

My week off was quite un-eventful. At the cottage, I weeded gardens, went for a few boat rides, chased a deer away from the road, shooed a snapping turtle away from the road, basically spent a lot of time keeping things off the road. That was about it. Oh yeah, and I got hit by lightning. Well, sort of. I was standing in the kitchen, wiping excess pina colada off the kitchen counter, with an electrical storm brewing nearby. Suddenly I heard a huge C-R-A-C-K. Then I realized that the ‘cr-r-a-c-k’ noise was actually coming from my body. This made me scream at the top of my lungs. My scream was then followed by a giant thundercrack, the house shook, and my husband ran into the room. He knew something was wrong because normally I scream AFTER a thundercrack. This time I screamed BEFORE the thundercrack. As it turned out, I had been a conducter for an electrical surge caused by lightning. I had no idea this could happen while you’re in your cottage wiping pina colada off the counter. For the next 15 minutes, I was a bit zombie-like but that was about it. I’m still waiting for some sort of super-power to kick in. I would love to be able to start the barbeque with my eyes.

THE PARTY MUST CONTINUE!!!!

NEVER GIVE UP!!!
Ok….so the Senators are down 3 games to 1. Its not impossible! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Today is Mike Fisher’s birthday. Wonder what gifts he’s going to get. Thank you to the listeners who called to suggest that Mike gets a Stanley Cup. Pretty good idea!

I had a theory about national anthem singers. I always thought that the best anthem singers were the people who were classically trained, ie opera singers. Pop singers always seem to destroy the anthem because they ‘try to make it their own’. Put their own little twist on it. Well, I was wrong! I thought Alanis Morrissette’s versions of both the American and Canadian anthems last night were the best yet! She genuinely seemed happy to be back in her hometown, belting out the words for all the world to see. Well, all of North America. Well, ok, how about all of Canada. And 30 of 40 American viewers.

Speaking of which, how much more ‘sucking up to NBC’ can we possibly do during the NHL play-offs? Having our games switched to Saturday AFTERNOONS to accommodate NBC was one thing….but I couldn’t believe it last night when CBC actually SWITCHED OVER to the NBC coverage of between-period chatter…yeah sure, Don Cherry was a guest on NBC but I like Don Cherry on CBC, not on NBC. I find he’s far too polite on NBC, he’s out of his element, he even wears clothes that match on NBC. He doesn’t pop a vein on NBC. That’s not the Don Cherry we all know and love.

Hey, are there really other things going on besides the Stanley Cup play-offs? Huge congratulations to everyone who worked tirelessly over the weekend – AND raised tons of cash during the CHEO telethon , as well as the ‘Weekend to End Breast Cancer’. These two events really put things into perspective, don’t they?

Our ‘Morning After’ correspondent Rick Currie has been doing a great job covering the various rallies and parties and ‘Red Zone’ rambunctious-ness (is that a word?) over the past few weeks during the play-offs. But, soon it will all be over, and we need to find some new assignments for Rick and his microphone. If you have any suggestions, email us mornings@939bobfm.com
For the most part, Rick has been interviewing people that have been drinking heavily. We hope that he is still capable of making out what a sober person is saying.

Tomorrow morning, the swans are being released onto the Rideau River! Yes, the ‘royal swans’ have been penned up for two years now, not seeing freedom last summer because someone decided there was the danger of avian flu or something like that……..
A word of advice, from someone who has had this experience. When I was a kid I used to ride my bike to Billings Bridge and bring a bag of bread with me to feed the swans right near the bridge. It always started off great, first the ducks would come for their pieces of bread, then the swans would show up. Then, before long, all heck would break loose. The experience would often end with me being chased across the lawn by an angry swan. Do not ever show favouritism towards one swan, give every swan equal amounts of bread, or you too will end up being chased across the lawn by a really mad swan. Just a word of advice. But those swans sure are beautiful.

Ouch!! We lose game 2 in Anaheim, series is now at 2 - 0 for the Ducks.
Just wait til they get to Ottawa!

Ok. Second period is over. Still no score. Ray Emery should get the Order of Canada for the way he's playing.

Mike Fisher enjoys a quick stop to the Anaheim Aquarium

First period is over. Phew!!! No score. The highlight of the period had to be, when Mike Fisher went without a helmet for a while.

Game 2 pre game show

As I write this, game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals is less than ½ hour away. I am wearing a ‘Be Red’ shirt. The Ottawa Senators lost the first game to the Anaheim Ducks. I have tried to block out the statistic that everyone keeps repeating: the team that wins the first game in the Stanley Cup finals goes on to win the Cup 84 percent of the time. To that I say…..PPPHHHTTTTT!!!!!
Why did our beloved Senators lose the first game? Was it the 9 day lay-off? The jet lag? Maybe its because Spartacat wasn’t in the building. Maybe its because the pairing of Governor Arnold Schwarzennegger and Don Cherry caused asteroids to collide, which in turn affected the molecular properties of the inside of the Honda Arena in Anaheim.
Or, maybe its just because the Ducks played better.
Nawwww……
The game’s coming up. Its already a really good sign of things to come: at least CBC is sparing us another sparring match between Ron McLean and Gary Bettman. See you after the first period.

Dany Heatley Doesn't Have extra tickets either

Some nights are just better than other nights. Ran into Dany Heatley at the Sterling Steakhouse by the Gatineau River last night. I blabbered on for a bit then he agreed to pose for a photo. He has a great sense of humour. He was also very relaxed, heading into the biggest hockey series of his life. Oh well, I’m still desperately trying to get my hands on Stanley Cup tickets like everyone else. Dany didn’t have any with him. Darn!!

Will Work For Senators Stanley Cup Final Tickets

Mike Fisher enjoys a well-deserved break in the garden

YAYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YAHOO!!!!!!!
WOO HOO!!!!!!!
Can you believe it? We are in the Stanley Cup finals! Just one more team to beat!!
I’m still in shock. I was born in Ottawa, and have lived in Ottawa my entire life. I consider myself one of those long-suffering Ottawa sports fans, you know the ones….the people who cheered and applauded and bought tickets and sat in the rain or sat in the bleachers, whether it was an Ottawa Rough Rider game where the score was 49 to 2 for the ‘other guys’, or whether it was a Renegades game, with some inane Gleiberman marketing debacle taking place in the upper level, or whether it was our beloved Senators, with so much promise heading into the play-offs, and somehow it was just not to be……….UNTIL NOW!!!!!
Now!!!!! Now its just a matter of getting tickets. This will be the hardest ticket in town. Of course, BOB FM will have a pair of tickets to give away for the first Stanley Cup Final home game. So good luck, and good dialing. I have to figure something else out. I have a few ideas up my sleeve. Can’t give them out, or someone might steal ‘em. Let’s just say it may or may not involve my jars and jars of spare change, and a couple of people who may or may not remember me from high school.

Phew! Close call! IF there was a Senators game this coming Saturday, there could’ve been quite a scene on Elgin Street. Its fantastic that Elgin Street has been deemed ‘Sens Mile’, and fans sure showed up in droves after our historic win last weekend. Well, this weekend is ‘National Capital Race Weekend’. And the 10K race is Saturday. The route for the 10K? Elgin Street! Sens Mile party vs runners in the 10K. I know it wouldn’t take much for me to tear off my racing bib and plunk myself down on a patio with all the other revelers. But I’d still finish the race. Just a little later.

This is a busy weekend coming up….its also the biggest fundraiser of the year for the Canadian Guide Dogs. Sunday morning, it’s the Guide Dogs Walk at Andrew Haydon Park by the Ottawa River. It’s the only day of the year that dogs are allowed at Andrew Haydon Park so bring your four legged friends and raise some funds for a special cause. For more information, go to www.guidedogs.ca

Calling all Elvis’!!! Elvis-es? El-vie? Whatever the plural of Elvis is…..Elvis Presley Enterprises is searching for the BEST ELVIS TRIBUTE ARTIST in the world!!! And the contest is making a stop right here, one of only 2 places in Canada…July 6th at the Casino du Lac Leamy in Gatineau! If you can curl your lip and snarl ‘thank you very much’, then shake everything you got, why not enter this contest!!! You may find yourself at Graceland! For complete details, check www.UltimateElvisTributeContest.com!

There's only one Buffalo

(above left) JR and Sandy and Stanley the Buffalo

(above right and yes, left , too

Rick Currie and Stanley

We found the country’s biggest Ottawa Senator fan, and he’s a BUFFALO!! What are the odds of that? Stanley the Buffalo (ok, his real name is ‘Dakota’, but we changed it for the series)!! Stanley the Buffalo is a rescued buffalo who now lives at the Big Sky Animal Sanctuary in Kemptville. (www.bigskyranch.ca)

As you can see from these pictures, he just loves the Ottawa Senators. He has completely turned his back on the Buffalo Sabres. Smart buffalo. JR and I along with morning show correspondent Rick Currie went out and visited Stanley recently, and he’s pretty pumped about the way the Ottawa Senators are playing. We let Rick interview Stanley, as he is the only one of us who speaks buffalo.
We are currently getting Rick ready to interview either a ‘duck’ or a ‘red wing’.

Talk is now turning to the Stanley Cup in Ottawa. As I write this, we have yet to clinch ‘round 3’ , but the energy is incredible in the city. I have lived in the Ottawa area my entire life and I join other true-born Ottawans when I say…….whats the best way to celebrate? We don’t really know. We have never had anything to celebrate….well, nothing of this magnitude anyway. Do we march up and down the street? Shout from our cars? Run amok? Scream things out of windows? Drop water balloons from roof-tops? Ride a horse into a hotel lobby?

If you were at the last Senators home game on Monday night, did you happen to see the giant red sasquatch…er, I mean, ‘Sens-quatch’? This guy was too funny. About 7 feet tall, red from head to toe, incredibly hairy. I heard that his costume earned him some seats behind the players’ bench. Unless of course, it wasn’t a costume.

The May Long Weekend is coming up!!! Yahoo! Do they still call it the May 2-4 weekend? Seems fitting to call it that. Time to open up the cottage, get out the camping gear, do some gardening. Maybe put in a brand new lawn because grubs ate your last lawn.

I have three apple trees to plant. I bought these really cool ‘4-in-one’ trees. Each tree will bear four different kinds of apples. I figure once my three apple trees are mature, I will get a crop of about 1000 apples each fall. And my husband hates apples. I’m the only one who eats them. If I have ever met you even just once six years ago, you will get a bag of apples from me.

But, I digress. Back to the Ottawa Senators!!!! GO SENS GO! Bye bye Buffalo. Ain’t it great to be Canadian?!!

Tail-gaters have more fun

There’s a new phenomenon that I’ve noticed during this particular Stanley Cup play-offs. Well, its not quite a phenomenon. I know two people that are doing it. They are both huge Ottawa Senators fans who absolutely refuse to watch the Sens play-off games, because they are TOO NERVOUS!! John Brenner, our morning news guy, is one of them. John loves the Ottawa Senators but he can’t watch the games right now. Too nerve-wracking. Doesn’t feel a sense of relief until the game is over, and he finds out the score, and he finds out that we won. Then he looks forward to the next game that he won’t watch.
At least he doesn’t buy a ticket to a game then wander around the concourse at Scotiabank Place until he hears some wild cheering. I hope for the Senators’ sake, that during the Buffalo series, John doesn’t watch the best game he never watched.

The Senators are having their third car rally on Saturday, and its going to be great! All cars gather at Lynx Stadium then form a convoy out to Scotiabank Place. Prizes for best decorated car!! Does this mean, once all the cars reach Scotiabank Place, that a ‘tail-gate party’ may break out?! If you’ve ever been to a concert or a sporting event in a place like New Jersey or Detroit or (gulp) Buffalo, tail-gate parties are HUGE! People have coolers filled with beer, barbeques, burgers! I’ve seen tail-gate parties where people even set up hot tubs and trampolines and giant sheds and they have refrigerators hooked up to generators. Its crazy!!! Here in Ottawa, a tailgate party consists of 2 guys, 2 lawn chairs, and 2 foam beer holders. We know we can beat Buffalo at the game of hockey, but we can’t beat their tail-gate parties. But I’d rather beat them at hockey.

Paris Hilton is going to jail! Another crazy National Enquirer headline!! Ha ha ha good one. Wait a minute……she really ‘is’ going to jail? Didn’t uber-rich people always used to get away with stuff? What’s the world coming to? I hear that Paris is not allowed to have her blackberry while she’s in jail. Isn’t that punishment enough? Right now, her ‘people’ are trying to have Governor Schwarzenegger grant Paris a pardon, so she won’t have to spend one precious moment in jail. If all that fails, they have a call in to the Pope.

This week, JR and I debuted our latest song, a duet called ‘Emery and Stanley’. Of course its about Ray Emery and the Stanley Cup, and we sang it to the tune of ‘Ebony and Ivory’. Within minutes of the song debuting on BOB FM , our phone lines lit up. We thank you so much for your passionate response! Everyone feels quite strongly that we should not be allowed to sing anymore. Even my Mother told me that JR and I should never sing. My own Mother.
That hurt. Whatever happened to ‘believe in your dreams, and they will come true’? My dreams include singing. Just not in a key that actually exists.

‘Dancing with the Stars’ is coming to Scotiabank Place on July 10th. Joey Fatone, Drew Lachey and the gang will be here. Its incredible how popular this show is! I’ve watched ‘Dancing with the Stars’ a few times….I really liked seeing ‘Cliff Claven’ from Cheers (John Ratzenburger) on the show. But he got voted off. Maybe he’d still be on the show if they matched him up with ‘Norm’.


Its blackfly season already! At the cottage so far, I’ve swallowed about five blackflys. They are quite flavourless, really. Except for the hint of Deep Woods Off. Always remember, wear dark clothing, use mosquito coils, make sure you eliminate any source of standing water for breeding mosquitoes, use candles, electronic buzzers, and of course, just stay inside.

The TSN Monkey likes us! He really likes us!!

This is a picture of a crab I took in Barbados. No real story behind it, I just really like the picture.

The boys in ‘The Police’ are back together again and you could win a trip to see them in either Montreal or Toronto! ‘BOB GET ME THE POLICE’ is the phrase you need to know, and you want to keep your radio on 939 BOB FM, as always!
I’ve been reading a lot of buzz about the Police, who are feverishly rehearsing for their upcoming tour in Vancouver. Word is they’ve never sounded better! But, as we know, all good things in life are created from conflict. Apparently Sting and drummer Stewart Copeland have comfortably returned to their age-old habit of fighting constantly. As legend has it, while on tour many many years ago, Stewart Copeland painted the words ‘Sting is An Idiot’ on one of his drums. He strategically placed the drum so that Sting couldn’t see it while on stage, but the entire audience could read the message. Don’t you just love rock ‘n roll?

What’s going on with the Tulip Festival? It starts next week, but this year there are NO bands! NO concerts! NO live music! Its really a shame….but the Tulip Festival has had back luck with weather on concert nights. Its hard to have a concert series be financially successful when your showcase acts are on stage in driving rain, thunder, lightning, high winds, and bone-chilling cold. So, we can’t exactly blame Tulip Festival organizers for pulling the plug on live shows.
But how have they replaced the concerts? With ‘spoken word’ gatherings. So instead of seeing Randy Bachman or 54-40 or The Trews perform, there will be speakers on-stage ‘talking’ about the bands. And what it would be like if they played. Oh well, at least its free.

I ran my first 10K this week. I finally got this running thing all figured out. When I start to run, I’m in instant pain. Then after about five minutes the pain goes away. Then, pain again. Then no pain. Pain again. Then no pain. So the trick is to just keep going through the pain, because eventually it goes away, and before you know it, 78 minutes has gone by, and you’ve just accomplished your first 10K.
Well, it took me 78 minutes. But I didn’t have the wind at my back.

So, Don Cherry has picked the Ottawa Senators and Anaheim for the Stanley Cup Finals. That’s good! And the TSN monkey has picked Ottawa to take this series over New Jersey. Also good! I was also surprised to see the story in the Ottawa Sun this week, pointing out that each and every city of Ottawa councillor says that the Senators are going to win this series! Yahoo!!! Our City of Ottawa councillors are predicting that the Sens’ will be victorious! That makes me feel much better about our chances.

Go Sens Go! I got a pair of tickets for Wednesday’s game, bought them on-line and boy, are they ever high up in the stands! I think we’re sitting about 2 rows from the last row in the place. You know you’re up there when the Scotiabank Place organist is lower than you are. But I’m not complaining, I can’t wait to get to the game, nice and early so we can enjoy all the fun that’s outside the arena before-hand. See you there! I’ll be the one wearing red!

Don't Forget Your Lucky Underwear

Here in Ottawa we have been ‘in our glory’ the past few days. It’s a proven fact that Canadians love two topics. One, is the weather. The second, is hockey. So it was pretty exciting that right smack dab in the middle of our first play-off series between the Penguins and our beloved Senators, we also got one heck of a spring snow storm. Its not unusual to get the odd snow-flake in April, but we were on the receiving end of a good old fashioned snow storm yesterday, 17 cm!!!! Enough to cancel school buses and send workers back to bed. Of course, the ‘work from home’ people were completely unaffected.

I have a couple of friends who work from home. I can see why it would be great to work from home: no need to battle rush hour traffic, you can stay in your teddy bear pyjamas, get a bit of work done, grab a free coffee anytime you want, have your dog lie at your feet, check in on Days of Our Lives, get some work done, go to the super-box and get your mail, make a salad, do a bit more work, write captions under last summer’s vacation pictures, stare out the window, surf E-bay, walk the dog, do some more work, pressure wash the walk-way and maybe even the house, call it a day, have a glass of wine. I think that must be what its like working from home. Let me know if I’m wrong.

I’m starting to seriously think about staying away from Ottawa Senators home games during the play-offs. I love play-off hockey. I love the Senators. I love going to Ottawa Senators play-off games. But every time I go to a game at Scotiabank Place, they lose. If I’m not at Scotiabank Place, they win. Am I prepared to stay away, for the good of the team? Should I be prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice….no live action Sens play-off hockey for me, unless I watch it on tv or listen to the radio? Hmmmm……let me think about that…….hmmm….not a chance. Besides, how do I know its not the guy in section 101 row 29 who forgot to wear his lucky underwear to the game? How do I know its not THAT GUY that caused the Sens to lose?

I have an official ‘food’ of the Ottawa Senators play-off run. Its spicy jerk chicken on a bun with mango salsa. It has absolutely nothing to do with hockey. I just really like it. Its healthy, too. Last year, the official play-off food in our house was chicken wings. 2 pounds a game. By the time the hockey season was over, neither me or my husband could fit into our shorts.

Next week, April 22nd to 28th, is ‘Organ Donation Awareness Week’. On Thursday April 26th at 6 pm, the A-Channel is hosting an event in conjunction with the Kidney Foundation. There will be an auction of t-shirts, each painted to promote the ‘Living Green Ribbon Campaign’. The Living Green Ribbon is the symbol for organ donation. Everyone is invited to the party, come on out – and please….if you can….please bid on our t-shirt. Yes, ‘the Morning After’ painted a t-shirt for the cause. The artwork is not good, not good at all. But it’s the thought that counts. For more information, www.kidneyfoundation.ca

Rocky Balboa Rocks!!!

Happy Easter! May there be many chocolate bunnies to consume today. I was at a shop the other day that was selling all kinds of traditional Easter treats, including chocolate Bart Simpsons and chocolate Homers. They were right next to the chocolate Nascar race cars. Now..’that’s’ Easter!

There’s a staff NHL play-off pool taking place tomorrow evening. I work with a lot of people who take their sports knowledge and love of hockey statistics quite seriously. These are the kind of guys who can watch a hockey game and size up the drama with a doozy of a statistic. For instance….did you know that if the Penguins are down by one goal in the second period, and the Senators Chris Neil has already had 3 fights, and Sidney Crosby has broken 2 hockey sticks with his slapshot, and the referee got a puck in the ankle just before the buzzer, that 77 percent of the games where this happens, the first goal of the third period is scored by Ottawa within 43 seconds.
I work with guys who talk like that.
It might be kinda fun to enter a play-off pool, where my player choices are based on their hair.

I’m not sure why I didn’t race out to see the movie ‘Rocky Balboa’ when it was in theatres last fall. Considering the fact that the original ‘Rocky’ is still my favourite movie of all time, I should’ve gone to see this one. But I didn’t, and I guess it was because I was too scared to see it. After the original ‘Rocky’, all the other Rocky movies just seemed to be attempts at ‘cashing in’. They were ridiculous. And each new Rocky movie just seemed to chip away at the integrity of the original. But, when I saw the DVD ‘Rocky Balboa’ staring back at me at the video store yesterday, I grabbed it. My husband and I watched it from the comfort of our couch….I could turn it off at any time should it start to be inane like Rocky 2, 3, 4, and 5. Well, I didn’t turn it off. I loved every minute of it. Sylvester Stallone completely re-captured the decency of his beloved Rocky character. Rocky as an aging fighter was pure grit and passion. If you haven’t seen ‘Rocky Balboa’ yet, possibly for the same reasons that I took so long to see it, do yourself a favour and rent it. You’ll love it. And keep Kleenex handy.

Genesis fans are already a-buzz about the big show coming to Scotiabank Place on September 15th. Tickets go on sale in a week but we will be giving a pair a day away all this week on ‘the Morning After’. Genesis has not graced a stage in Ottawa since their Abacab tour in December 1981. Were you there? I’d love to read a review of the ’81 show. This September’s Genesis show should be one of the biggest concerts of the year in Ottawa. But once you have your tickets, try not to think about it too much, because the show is in the FALL, and no one wants to wish summer away. Not everyone will agree with this last statement, but some people will. I hope.

The Word 'Gullible' is not in the Dictionary

The Juno Awards are coming up on Sunday, this year they are taking place in Saskatoon! I’ll bet Saskatoon is going to be hopping all weekend. This is the Canadian Music Industry’s biggest deal, and it’s a ton of fun to partake in some of the events if you’re lucky enough to be in the host city. When the Junos were in Ottawa a few years back, every bar in the Byward Market was booked by a record company. I walked from bar to bar with some friends (one bar actually let us IN) ..but since I didn’t have invitations I just waited til someone famous would walk out. I saw…hmm…lets see…Shania Twain, Jim Cuddy, Raine Maide and Chantal Kreviazuk, Chad Kroeger from Nickelback, and Sam Roberts. All of them going from one party to another. I tried to sneak into one party behind Chad Kroeger because he’s quite tall, but it didn’t work.

One of my biggest cringe-worthy moments also stems from the Juno Awards in Ottawa. At the last minute, I got a ticket to go to the show, and my seat was exactly in the last row on the floor (about 60 rows back). Tom Cochrane was being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, and he was giving quite a heart-felt speech. It was a spectacular speech, in fact. Unfortunately, I had to use the ladies room so I quickly squeezed down my row of spectators, then stood at the back of the arena wondering how to get out to the nearest bathroom. I then noticed that Tom Cochrane’s speech was no longer being delivered with as much conviction. To my horror, I realized that I was standing in front of a teleprompter, which Tom Cochrane was reading. My body was completely blocking the words to Tom Cochrane’s once-in-a-lifetime speech. I got out of the way as fast as I could. And Tom picked up where he left off. It was a night I’ll never forget. I love the Juno Awards.

Approximately $100,000 dollars was raised at the Humane Society Fur Ball last Saturday!!! Thank you to the organizing committee, the sponsors, and of course the Fur Ball attendees, who definitely opened their wallets for the animals. Honorary chair Laureen Harper looked stunning in a gorgeous black gown. Its one of the only fundraisers in Ottawa where everyone seems to have dog or cat hair on their elegant clothes.

Uh oh….this Sunday is April Fools Day. It’s a scary day of the year for me, as I seem to be fooled by someone or something 365 days of the year, and it is quite easy to trick me. I tend to believe everything I read, as well as everything I hear, and everything I see. So, I feel that I should be exempt from being a victim on April Fools Day, because I am such an easy target. As my friend, councilor Rob Jellett used to say, ‘hey Sandy, did you know the word ‘gullible’ is NOT in the dictionary’………

Glad to hear that ‘Hockey Night in Canada’ , with Don Cherry and Ron MacLean, has been re-newed for six more years. How could they ever cancel Hockey Night in Canada? It would never happen. Although I must say that since I got a high-def television, Don Cherry’s suits are becoming even harder to look at. A friend of mine had a touch of the flu last weekend, and when she saw Don Cherry’s suit, she had to flee the room. Funny how a ‘Don Cherry’ fashion line has never taken off. Not for the faint of heart.

All Weather Televisions

And just one more sign of spring…..’The Spring Home and Garden Show’, Lansdowne Park! This year the ‘Dock Dogs’ will be at the show, check out the Dock Dogs at www.dockdogs.com. These are dogs that jump off docks, into water, and they travel everywhere to compete against each other for the biggest jump. This Saturday, I will be in a jump-off against the Dock Dogs. I’m up for the challenge. I think I’m more worried about being in a bathing suit in public.
After I jump in the pool, I’m going to go up to the nearest person and shake all the water off right onto their clothes.

I love the Home and Garden Show. I’ve been working on my flower garden for about 9 years now, making every mistake I can possibly make. At the Home and Garden show, the most amazing gardens are put together just for the show, indoors, complete with ponds, gazebos, water fountains, etc. These gardens are in place for just 4 days. I wish I could have a helicopter air-lift one of these gardens and transplant it at my place.

The big trend right now is ‘outdoor living rooms’. Blurring the lines between ‘indoors’ and ‘outdoors’. The idea is that our ‘outdoor room’ has furniture, art pieces, an outdoor fireplace, etc. The only difference with the ‘outdoor room’ is that there is the possibility of having bird poop on the couch. And I wonder how long it will be before they come up with a weather-proof giant screen plasma tv.

The ‘Terminator’ is coming to town! Arnold Schwarzennegger will be here at the end of May to talk about the environment, gas emissions, etc. I hear that he no longer drives a Hummer. With the possibility of extra tariffs on gas-guzzling vehicles, it looks like ‘Hummers’ are becoming one of the targets of the environmental movement.
My beef with a ‘Hummer’ is that it takes up three parking spots.

My Mom passed along something she saw on the Martha Stewart show. It sounds like fun, think I’ll try it. For Easter, you take a dozen eggs and wrap each egg with the outer shell from a red onion, using a twist tie to keep the onion on the egg. Then you drop the red-onion-covered-egg into boiling water and boil for 10 minutes. Let cool, take the onion off, and ‘shazam’! You have purple eggs! Then hide the purple eggs all over the house. Since these are real eggs, you may want to make sure you and the kids FIND all the purple eggs. Otherwise you may need

Pucker Up! Time to Kiss the Blarney Stone

Go to Barbados! Then once you’re in Barbados, go to Berts Bar!!! It is the absolute perfect combination for a Canadian! Escape winter, head to the sun and sand of Barbados, then, while in your t-shirts and shorts, with your face a wee bit sunburnt, go to Berts Bar by the ocean and watch the OTTAWA SENATORS kick the Toronto Maple Leafs’ collective butts! I highly recommend this vacation, as I just got back from doing that. Along with Sens army Captain Ryan Guthrie, his brother Murray, and a great group of people that gathered with Sens owner Eugene Melnyk and Bert himself, what a blast!!!!

Next to watching the Senators via satellite, one of my favourite excursions was the ‘Cool Runnings’ catamaran, loaded up with excitable party animals INCLUDING Spartacat himself! There’s something to be said for this visual: Spartacat clutching the steering wheel of a huge catamaran charting a course down the Barbados coast-line, his red hair flowing in the wind, a majestic Ottawa Senators flag flapping above him. That cat is the ultimate chick magnet.

I’ve had three animals on my ‘must see in their natural environment’ list. One is the wolf (yet to see), the humpback whale (yet to see) and the other was the ‘sea turtle’. Well, not only did we see sea turtles, we swam with sea turtles, and we even touched their backs gently, which they seemed to enjoy. Or maybe I just imagined them enjoying that. Come to think of it, their shells are as hard as a rock so petting a turtle was probably a useless exercise. To the turtle. For me, it was the thrill of the year. Now I just have to pet a wolf and a humpback whale.

Sitting at the Barbados airport waiting for our flight home, someone pointed out that Jean Beliveau was sitting in the airport lounge with his wife. The great Jean Beliveau himself! That was cool. Over the P.A, his name was announced to board the plane first, and when he stood up everyone burst into applause. A lesson to be learned here: if you work hard and become a highly regarded hockey player spanning an incredible career, you get to be the first on a plane.

St Pattys Day is on a Saturday this year!! That’s a wonderful thing…for the most part. But having St Pattys Day fall on a Saturday does mean that we will miss out on one thing: the people leaving their workplaces to head to a pub for a St Pattys Day lunch….a sea of career suits and skirts and dress blouses and shirts and heels….the intention is to have ‘one pint of Guinness’ then head back to the office….hah! By around 4 pm the shoes are off, the jackets are piled high on hooks, and the accountant is wearing a flashing neon ‘kiss me I’m Irish’ button. Happy St Pattys Day, and remember, before you kiss the Blarney Stone, find out where its been.

I’ve become absolutely hooked on a TV show that is no longer running. I used to watch ‘Arrested Development’ on occasion , before it was cancelled by the network. I think it was on FOX TV. Anyway, its now in syndication on CBC every day at 4:30 pm and I drop everything to watch it, because it is the funniest, most creative, most well written and acted show of all time. (or is that ‘most BEST written’?) I laugh out loud from beginning to end, on the couch, all by myself, unless you count my card-board cut-out of Mike Fisher. He loves Arrested Development too.

My name is Sandy and I'm a Costco-A-holic

Chicks rule, boys drool! That’s the first time I’ve ever used that saying. But somehow it seems to fit for this season’s ‘American Idol’. The women are amazing! The guys…not as amazing. This season there are going to be huge ‘celebrity guests’ on American Idol, which I find kinda amusing. You can be sure that Jennifer Lopez wouldn’t have touched American Idol with a ten foot pole on the first few seasons – but now that 37 million people are watching every week – she’s somehow signed on to the show. Every time they announce the ‘upcoming celebrity guests’ for American Idol, I get nervous. I’d shudder to think that one of my favourite musicians has signed on to the American Idol monster. So far, there are no signs of Bruce Springsteen, Steve Earle, Bob Dylan, U2, Neil Young, Jet, The Killers,
Ryan Adams, David Bowie or Chrissie Hynde appearing on American Idol. Phew!!!!

There was a story in the paper last week about Mayor Larry O’Brien bringing his dog to work every day. The story was somewhat negative, focusing on the fact that the Mayor’s driver was walking the dog a few times a day, and his salary is of course paid by Ottawa taxpayers. The driver said he walked Mayor O’Brien’s dog in his off-time, and he did it because he wanted to, not because he was expected to. So where’s the problem? I have always thought we should have a ‘Bring Your Dog to Work Day’, throughout the city!! Studies have shown that having your dog by your side while you work gives you a certain contentment, thus you are more productive. Plus, with a dog by your side, people are more likely to chat with you, making the workplace a more congenial atmosphere. What do you think? ‘Bring Your Dog To Work Day’! I think we’d have the Mayor’s blessing on this one. It would be fantastic! Everyone could bring their dog to work….with the possible exception of people who work in a cat daycare.

Congratulations to Ryan Guthrie, who was crowned the ‘Sens Army Captain’, and has won a trip to Barbados! Finalists Sean Urich and Beth Evans have also been awarded trips to Barbados, to enjoy the Sens – Leafs match-up from Berts Bar. Sens owner Eugene Melnyk surprised everyone with a trip! Good guy, that Mr Melnyk.
I met Eugene Melnyk and Bert Innis (from Berts Bar, Barbados) last week and they are what you call ‘salt of the earth’ people! Between periods of the Sens – Carolina game, Eugene and I talked horses. We have quite a bit in common when it comes to horses. Eugene owns 550 horses, and I have pictures of other people’s horses that I’ve taken from the side of the road.

I went to Costco the other day. I don’t have a membership but I went in on the coat-tails of my Mom’s membership. I needed to go to Costco because it’s the only place that sells these certain doggie treats that my dogs are crazy about. I promised myself that I would buy ONLY the dog treats, and nothing else. I would not get caught in the vortex of crazed spending that often occurs when you go to Costco. I did pretty well, I think. I bought 3 bags of dog treats. And a seven piece patio set.

Least Favourite Past-time: Shopping for a Bathing Suit

March 24, 2007: mark it on your calendar! It’s the Humane Society’s ‘Fur Ball’ ! This year it takes place at the beautiful National Gallery and the 4-course meal Is being prepared by chefs from the Prime Minister’s residence, the NAC, the Governor General, and more. It’s a fabulous evening with a ‘Mardi Gras’ theme, so bring your masks! There will be very unique auction items available, including a flight in a vintage de Havilland Beaver! For ticket information, see www.ottawahumane.ca!

Gotta get my car washed. Right now there is 3 inches of salt covering every inch of my car. I couldn’t even find my car in the grocery store parking lot the other day. It was completely camouflaged. My friend bragged to me that she got her car washed, hot wax, the works. It took exactly one drive to work for her car to look as dirty as it was before. Maybe I’ll just stick to what I’ve been doing……when I’m at the gas pump, I grab the windshield sponge-y thing and wipe down the car as fast as I can. Its temporary, but I saved $13.00 on a hot wax.

The Oscars are on tonight! I’m so glad that Ellen de Generes is hosting. I think she’s amazing. She always seems to be the same, naturally funny and nice, no matter who she’s interviewing, whether it’s a woman who has the world’s largest collection of Gumpy and Pokey memorabilia, or whether she’s talking to Barbra Streisand. Speaking of the Oscars, again another year goes by where I did not get out and see all the ‘best picture’ nominees. Actually, this year is my worst record yet. I’ve only seen ‘The Departed’ and ‘Babel’. Mostly because they both came out on DVD. I also saw ‘Borat’ but for some reason it was not nominated for best picture.

I’m very much looking forward to the Ottawa Senators game Wednesday night, February 28th, as they take on the Carolina Hurricanes. At that game, the winner is determined for the ‘Hockey Night in Barbados’ Contest! Three semi-finalists will show off their Sens Army Captain videos during intermissions. The winner will be crowned ‘Sens Army Captain’, and will enjoy a trip to Barbados – complete with bragging rights at BERTS BAR in Barbados to watch the Sens take on the Toronto Maple Laffs! The panel of judges for the contest Wednesday night will be Sens owner Eugene Melnyk, Bert Iniss of Berts Bar, and yours truly! I’ve never met Eugene Melnyk before but I hear he is fun and down-to-earth. Anyone who wears a Senators shirt with palm trees all over it has to be fun.

For any woman who is going on a trip down south this winter…I’m sure you can sympathize. Is there anything worse than shopping for a bathing suit? Bathing suit shopping is horrible. There is no bathing suit on the face of the earth for me. One piece, two piece, three piece. Do they make a bathing suit that looks like jeans and a sweatshirt?

Hot Tub People are Different

The concept behind ‘Pal-entines Day’ swept the city! Ok, well….maybe it swept 5 or 6 people. But everything has to start somewhere. In case you don’t know (which at this point is 99.9 percent of the population), Palentines Day appears on February 13th, day before that ‘other day’. Giving someone a ‘Palentines Day’ card means ‘hey, glad we are pals’. There is no pressure of romance or anything. You can give a Palentines Day card to anyone, even your best friend’s wife or husband! For those of us who didn’t get that many cards in grade 4 on that ‘other day’ that rhymes with Palentines….THIS DAY IS FOR YOU!!!!

My husband and I and another couple spent last weekend at Mont Tremblant. This was the result of a decision that we needed to make: buy some RRSP’s, or go skiing at Mont Tremblant. We chose the hill. Buying RRSP’s just isn’t as much fun! The accommodations were beautiful! There was an outdoor hot tub!!! All we had to do was put on our bathing suits and our Sorel winter boots, and walk about 4 minutes through the snow in –34 C temperatures, a bit chilly in your swimwear, but the pay-off was going to be amazing! When we arrived at the hot tub gate, it was of course, locked, to keep the riff raff out. But we had our room key which we confidently swiped to open the gate. Uh oh, the key didn’t work! The hot tub was filled with people that collectively looked the ‘other way’, ignoring our pleas for help! We weren’t going to give up! Help us, please! There’s a problem with our key! We are wearing bathing suits and boots and its –34C, -45 with the windchill! That’s when I noticed the looks on the hot tubs people’s faces. ‘WE’ were the ‘riff raff’! This hot tub was not for US! It was only for the people from room numbers 701 to 730! We were in room 690! The ‘700 block’ people would rather let us freeze to death than let us in the hot tub. We had no choice but to give up. There was a lesson to be learned here. Stay in school, graduate at the top of your class, make the right financial decisions, buy investments, buy RRSP’s! Then you can go into the hot tub!


I’ve shaved 3 minutes off my running time! I can now run 1.2 km in 15 minutes, according to my microwave timer. Two weeks ago the same distance took me 18 minutes. National Capital Race Weekend, here I come!!!



One of our listeners, Michael Milsom, challenged me to go skating on the canal during Winterlude. (I haven’t skated on the canal since I was a teenager!) He offered to donate $50.00 to BARK (Bytown Association of Rescued Kanines) www.bark-ottawa.com) …if I strapped on my skates and went for a whirl on the canal. The idea actually gripped me with fear. Its been so long since I skated, PLUS, I could never really skate anyway! But, having $50.00 go to one of my favourite charities was too much to pass up. So, Michael, fire off that cheque to BARK! I skated for 15 minutes on the canal yesterday, fell three times, and nearly took an eye out . Someone else’s eye. An out-of-towner, thank goodness, so I’ll never have to see him again.
I hope.

Its a bird! Its a plane! Its David Lee Roth!

Wow, there have been some weird match-ups in Hollywood lately. Scarlett Johannsen and Justin Timberlake. Matthew Perry and Meg Ryan. Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy. Heather Locklear and David Spade. For some reason, these all strike me as odd couples. Not ‘easy to see why they’re together’ couples like Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock…oh wait, bad example…Alanis Morrissette and Ryan Reynolds…oops, they’re finished too….Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe…they didn’t work out either. Come to think of it, just when we start getting used to seeing a celebrity couple together, boom! Its OVER! I wonder what Valentines Day is like in Hollywood. I’m holding out for some romantic news from the celebrity set. Keeping my fingers crossed that Tom Green and Drew Barrymore get back together.

Kudos to the Ottawa City Councillors who participated in the ‘Toque Tuesday’ challenge, hitting the streets to sell as many ‘Raising the Roof’ toques as possible. And thank you to Mayor O’Brien for buying the first toque, and his is definitely a head that needs a toque. For the month of February, these toques can be bought (just 10.00 each) at all Home Depot stores, downtown Starbucks and The Body Shop. All proceeds go to ‘Cornerstone’ womens shelter here in Ottawa.

I’ve taken up jogging. So far, I’ve set out to run 1.2 miles a day. I set the timer on the microwave then I run out the door and down the street until I reach the neighbourhood Super Mailboxes, then I turn around and run back. According to the odometer in my car, this is a distance of 1.2 miles. My running time for 1.2 miles is currently somewhere between 18 minutes and 16 minutes. My goal is to get it down to 14 minutes. Then I will be ready for National Capital Race Weekend.

Van Halen is getting back together! The Eagles are putting out a new album in the next couple of months. Genesis is going on tour. The Police are opening the Grammy Awards show. Don’t you just love what’s happening? I do!! I can’t wait to see these acts on the road. This could be another one of those years where my monthly Visa card bill looks like this:
Clothing: 0.00 Restaurants 0.00 Car Rental 0.00
Hotels 0.00 Tickets/Events $845.00. Oh well. Good thing I can get a refund now with my wine bottles!

Roman Numerals are Fun

Superbowl Sunday is coming up! Which, in my household, really doesn’t mean anything. I am not married to an NFL fanatic. Thank goodness! I do, however, like the commercials during the Superbowl. And, besides, the Superbowl itself is notorious for being a bad, lop-sided football game. Despite the huge fall-out from Janet Jackson’s ‘wardrobe malfunction’ a few years back, at least it was something a bit unexpected! It injected a bit of excitement into the game. Oh well, here comes Superbowl XXXIIIIIVIVIV! Go Bears go! Who’s the other team, anyway?

Why are roman numerals attached to the Superbowl?
Anyone? Is it because the players are ‘gladiators’? Which came first? Football or chariot races? And why aren’t roman numerals used more often? Roman numerals are cool. I have a friend who just had a birthday, she turned XXXIV. Remember that scary movie with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman? I think it was called ‘VII’. Then there was that sitcom with Suzanne Somers, ‘III’s company’. See how much fun Roman Numerals are?!

Congratulations again to Adam Beach, our favourite Hollywood actor, who lives right here in Ottawa, but……..he’s going to have to start commuting to New York City! Adam recently signed on to a brand new role on Law and Order SVU! You may have seen the ‘pilot’ episode with Adam a couple of weeks back, where he played Brooklyn detective Chester Lake. In upcoming episodes, we will be seeing a lot more of Adam….and the wicked chemistry that he has with ‘Ice-T’!

The NCC must be breathing a big sigh of relief these days. Mother Nature finally kicked in with some cold weather so the canal is open! Yay! And Friday night, Randy Bachman performs at the Snow Bowl. Its free so come on out! Only Canadian performers can go out in –23 weather and actually strum a guitar. Its something we should be proud of!

My heart goes out to all the people who knew and loved ‘Barbaro’, the brave racehorse who lost his battle today. Barbaro captured our imagination when he won last year’s Kentucky Derby. The ankle injury he incurred while running ‘The Preakness’ was so severe, no one thought he would survive. But fight he did, and each day came more promise and more hope that Barbaro would completely recover. The Cinderella story came to an end this morning, when Barbaro’s owners and doctors made the heart-wrenching decision to put Barbaro to sleep after a serious infection inflicted too much pain for the big colt. Rest in peace, Barbaro. We will never forget your courage.

Gimme Back My Film!

I just got my Christmas photos back from the photo store. They were the pictures from Christmas 2005. When I first got my digital camera, I thought it would be a lot easier to get photos printed than with the oh-so-dated ‘film’ concept. But here’s the way I look at it: with film, you put the film in the camera, take the pictures, bring the film to the store, pick up the prints. That’s 4 steps.
Now, lets look at digital photography. You snap away at everything and anything because you don’t have to pay for a print that you don’t want. So you have 47 pictures of the dog sleeping on the couch, the 23 shots of the moon, the 52 shots of your friend’s birthday cake, and about 600 other pictures over the next few months. And the more you procrastinate about downloading/making prints out of those pictures, you are now at about 1000 pictures that require your attention, and who has time to deal with that? Finally on a snowy Sunday, you sit down at the computer and download all the pictures. Then you write down which pictures you promised to send to friends by e-mail. You look up all their email addresses and patiently wait for your computer to email all the pictures of the birthday party, last St Pattys Day, camping on the May long weekend. And some friends wanted the squirrel picture too. Then you look at all 1300 pictures again and decide which ones to make into prints. Then you download these onto several discs and bring them to the photo store. The bill for processing comes to $327.00. And now you have a thousand pictures waiting to go into photo albums. Again you need an entire snowy Sunday to put 1000 pictures into photo albums.
I think I miss my old camera. The one that took film.

I recently saw the movie ‘Children of Men’. Didn’t laugh once. Actually, I call it ‘ the feel awful movie of the year’. But, it was excellent. It’s a film that takes place in the year 2027 (which adds to the fear factor, because its really not that far off). A world-wide flu pandemic has wiped out millions of people, and left all the women of the world unable to bear children. Clive Owen is fabulous in this movie. Julianne Moore puts in a great performance too. I highly recommend the film, but just make sure you’re in the mood for it. Not a date flick. And, oh yeah, get your flu shot.

Thank you to Susan and Bob of Bridlewood Kanata for generously giving me a new life-sized cardboard cut-out of Mike Fisher. My original Mike Fisher was ‘lifted’ from my office shortly before Christmas, never to be returned. Susan heard my lament on the air and now I have a brand new Mike Fisher who enjoys watching the Ottawa Senator games with me on the couch.

Valentines Day is coming fast! I was reminded about Valentines Day by our producer, Hammer, who asked the question: ‘When is Valentines Day this year’? We are still chiding him about that one. I used to have a boyfriend who complained every year that Valentines Day always arrived on the day BEFORE the 15th of the month, which was pay-day. So I always had to wait until the next day to get flowers or chocolates. And, as an added bonus, by waiting one day he got everything at 50 percent off. Now that’s romantic.

Have you ever wondered how some tv shows ever get the ‘green light’? Especially some of the reality shows. I’m trying to picture the ‘network pitch’ for this show: “C’mon…its gonna be great…the premise of the show is that we take C-list and D-list celebrities, we give them real shot-guns, then we make them members of a real police force and send them out to fight real criminals!! Huh? What do you think, fanatastic, huh?” Well, CBS TV bought the idea and thus we have the premiere of ‘Armed and Famous’, a new reality show starring La Toya Jackson, Erik Estrada, and Jack Osbourne among others. For the show, these former celebrities have all been outfitted in uniforms and badges, and they are packing heat! The mayor of Muncie Indiana agreed to allow La Toya and the gang to join the Muncie police force, because they thought it would put Muncie on the map. It would be good for tourism, the mayor of Muncie said. Maybe there will even be souvenir t-shirts that say: ”I visited Muncie Indiana and I got shot by La Toya Jackson’!


Thank you to our ‘Morning After’ correspondent Rick Currie, who provided live on-the-spot coverage of the Canadian Edition ‘Deal or No Deal’ Briefcase Model Auditions in Montreal. At one point Rick was surrounded by about 350 beautiful women getting ready for the audition by changing into their cocktail dresses. Thank you for handling this tough assignment, Rick.

This winter has been so mild, I haven’t put my snowshoes on yet. There still isn’t enough snow. Well, I guess I could drive to where there IS snow, but that would take a lot of effort. Once I pulled into the parking lot at Meech Lake in Gatineau Park to do a little snow-shoeing. I got out of the car, put on my snowshoes, and someone pointed out that my car was in a tow-away zone. So I drove my car about 100 feet, with my snow-shoes still on. Do not ever do this. This activity is only for trained professionals on a closed course. And I meant to drive into that snowbank.


The ‘People’s Choice Awards’ are on tonight and I’m pretty excited to watch the awards because on the People’s Choice Awards website, there is an opportunity for people to ‘ask the celebrity’. You can ask a variety of celebrities one question, you just submit your question on the website, then they tell you to watch the awards show to see if YOUR question comes up! I asked Charlie Sheen this question: ‘have you ever put something on the roof of your car then forgot it was there and drove away’? What do you think the chances are that this question will be addressed on tonight’s ‘Peoples Choice Awards’? Probably as good as getting the green light for a gun-toting celebrity reality show.

Why do Hammer and JR Get Cardinals

This mild weather is crazy! The temperatures over the Christmas holidays even seem to affect the gift-giving this year. My in-laws (Russ and Myrna Bennett, such wonderful people, and I’m not saying that just because they read this blog in Halifax), for Christmas they gave my husband Rob and I the coolest thing: a barbeque briefcase! It has steak knives and bbq knives and all things barbeque. It all comes in a silver briefcase which I can bring to any big-time meeting to impress executives. They don’t need to know that the contents are barbeque tools and knives. And my sister and brother-in-law (Natalie and Paul) also wonderful and I’m not just saying that, gave us a ceramic pot that shoots out a giant flame! Outdoor use only! A barbeque briefcase and an outdoor flaming pot. They’re not just for summer anymore.

Have you broken any of your New Years resolutions yet? I haven’t. I made one resolution…..to read a book. I find its easy to keep your resolutions if you don’t give them an expiry date.

Back to the mild weather…… I am quite concerned right now that my tulips are going to start poking out. Last week at the cottage, I saw a chipmunk. Are they not supposed to be hibernating by now? And one of the surest signs that this has been a mild winter, for me at least, has been the absence of mice in the cottage. Usually towards November a mouse or two appears under the kitchen sink and settles in for the winter. He has the warmth of the dishwasher and a semi-regular food source: the swinging cupboard door garbage container. Ahhhhh…the life. But not this year. The mice are just as happy to stay outside, where at least they don’t have to deal with a shrieking woman everytime the cupboard door is opened.

Sometimes there is just no justice in this world. As I’ve mentioned many times, I am an amateur bird watcher. I’ve taken a course, I have the best birding binoculars, I have the best field guides, a diary to record my sightings, and bird feeders outside the window that are always stocked. I have never seen a cardinal. Actually, once while I was driving along Limebank Road I saw something red fly over-head for about 2 seconds. Could’ve been anything. And this is the real sad part……my on-air partner JR says he has cardinals in his yard constantly. And so does our producer, Hammer. They see so many cardinals, they’re like pigeons on a statue. They have multiple cardinal sightings each and every day. I would be filled with joy if I saw a cardinal. But , for JR and Hammer, seeing a cardinal is about as exciting as seeing a street-sweeper. Actually, I think they would prefer the street-sweeper. Sigh………….

I got quite tied up just before Christmas to really delve into this situation, but I intend to put effort into it now. Shortly before Christmas, someone stole my life-sized Mike Fisher cardboard cut-out from the office that I share with Steve Madely and Lowell Green. It has yet to surface. If anyone has any information, any leads at all, please contact me. You can remain anonymous as long as you give me your name, phone number, address, work number, and extension.Thank you for your help.