Today's Public Service Announcement

This one goes out to all my smart, funny, feminist friends.

If you haven't watched Sarah Haskin's "Target Women" spots (they're all available on youtube) yet, you must get thee to a computer and do so immediately.

Here's a trio of my favourites to get you started...

"Well she's in for a surprise when unlikely suitor, high concept hijinks, unnecessary obstacle, true love, happy ending"



"Interested in sex? But afraid of having a baby? Trrryyy birth control."



"Ah Chocolate...orgasms AND childhood"

Diary of a Dive School Graduate

Just back from one of the best vacations ever thanks to a relatively last minute decision to join my friend Georgia on hers. I mentioned last month that even just back from the cruise, I was feeling in need of another vacation and luckily enough, an opportunity to take one came up.

Generally speaking, I'm the organizer bunny when it comes to travel (and pretty much everything really). I'm big on pre-vacation prep...loose itineraries, accomodation and travel arrangements and printing off info on activity options. This time around as the 'joinee', I had to step outside my comfort zone a little bit and just take it as it came.

Georgia's vacation destination was Roatan, Honduras. The largest of the Bay Islands just off the coast of Honduras mainland. To be perfectly honest, until I got her flight itinerary, I had never heard of the place. I managed to have a whirlwind converstation with G before she took off and booked my flight less than a week before departure. She was lucky enough to have a two week stretch off work so left 6 days before me to get down there and settled in.

On Saturday morning my alarm went off at the ungodly hour of 3:30am and after a connecting flight from Toronto through Houston, I arrived in Roatan to a blast of heat and crazy sunshine and the highway robbery of a $20 cab fare to the lodge. We stayed for the week at Mariposa Lodge, a charming, relatively inexpensive lodge owned and run by a couple of fellow Canucks. They've got a fantastic location (right in West End), clean good sized apartments and a fully stocked DVD library for guests (which allowed me my usual habit of falling asleep with the TV).


After enjoying a few beers on our deck we took a wander around West End and settled in for a pina colada and the first sunset of the week.

Activities for the week included taking a water taxi down to West Bay beach one afternoon and enjoying a very lazy long lunch at one of the resorts and an afternoon reading on the beach, as well as renting a (rather sketchy) van and driving around the island for the day through the small towns, hills and beautiful beaches around the island. Evenings were spent grabbing a bite to eat and wandering from bar to bar grabbing a drink or a dance as we moved along. One night we caught the NCAA final game 'old school style' on the radio at a bar with a generator when the power was out (which happened pretty much every day for a couple of hours).

But what I spent most of the week doing was getting my PADI Open Water diving certification with the gang at Tyll's Dive. Diving is one of those things I always figured I'd absolutely love but never got around to actually doing. I even went on a vacation with my friend Tanja a few years ago and spent the week drinking margaritas around the pool while she got about 10 dives in (but that's another story). With 8 days at my disposal and a very open itinerary I figured this would be the perfect time to give it a shot.

And oh my word, I am absolutely hooked. I started swimming lessons when I was 6 months old and have always been a water lover but this took it to a whole new level. Taking the tests and exam in the classroom sections made me feel like I was back in school and the first time you find yourself breathing underwater is a bit unnatural but it's all worth it for the first moment you find yourself hanging out on the reef. Over 5 dives I managed to see what seemed like a million fish, a turtle, lobster, moray eel and some pretty cool coral formations. I found it very easy to get a bit mesmerized and completely lose track of time...thankfully someone else was keeping track of me.

If you're looking for a place to dive in Roatan I can highly recommend Tyll's. They were great with a complete newbie like me and a more experienced diver in Georgia. The groups were small, equipment well cared for and the atmosphere relaxed. Tell them I sent you :-).

All too soon the week came to an end with a final sunset and beer and a day travelling back to the real world.

Now I just need to figure out how I get back underwater :-).

End of Winter perfection

Wow. What a perfect weekend.

I took a last minute holiday on Friday and headed up to the cottage to get in on the last weekend of winter and sure am glad I did.

Two days of perfect sunny skies and hours spent outside on the lake doing some skating, playin' some hockey and curling a stone or two.

Three mornings of curling up with mom and the dog and enjoying a coffee and Baileys while watching deer scamper across the lake.

Three runs down the lake on the snowmobile with the wind rushing and the sun shining down. Not to mention the absolute delight on the faces of the kids getting a quick loop around the bay.

Great meals that I didn't have to prepare (thanks to the chefs!) with good wine and even better company.

Cooperdog running after a tennis ball on the lake and overshooting it every time never gets less entertaining.

Watching my mother win the poker game was almost, almost, as good as winning myself.

So long to the lake...see you in the summer!

Hey there...what up?

So I've clearly managed to be very lazy and haven't posted anything in a while (for the 4 of you reading :-) ) Here's what's been going on in my life for the past few months...

- I have a nephew. He's adorable. And my brother and sister-in-law seem to be adjusting to the parenting thing pretty well. It was a fun Christmas with the family with a new little one around. I've made the trip back home more in the past three months than I have in the last couple of years it seems to see him.

- Speaking of babies, I have 5 friends who have either just had or are about to have a baby in the next few months. Good thing I love to play Auntie.

- I had a great vacation on the 'Ships & Dip' cruise for the third year seeing fantastic music and great all around entertainment. Unfortunately the weather wasn't as accomodating but at least there were a lot of great distractions. This year's "find" is Butterfly Boucher, an artist from Australia...you should totally check her out.

- I'm thinking i need to go on another vacation soon.

- I can't believe it's already March.

- I am really, really enjoying the third season of Friday Night Lights (why aren't more people watching this show??). I want a man like Coach Taylor.

- Am also enjoying the ride on 'Lost'. Please, please J.J. don't disappoint me with the wrap up. If you do, I'm going to hear "I told you so" from a few naysayers who insist you're making it up as you go along.

- I fall a little more in love with Jon Stewart every week.

- I'm looking forward to seeing Spring Awakening on it's pass through Toronto. Saw it on Broadway a few years ago and loved it. It remains to be seen whether I'll get there more than once while it's in town.

The Killers....well...killed

I've been to a number of concerts in the past few months and they've all been pretty great. But The Killers at Massey Hall on Tuesday were absolutely fantastic.

First of all, Massey Hall is one of my favourite venues to see a concert. It's relatively small (capacity is under 3000) and feels intimate, the acoustics are great and I just love walking into the old building. Mind you, I've been fortunate to have floor seats for most of my events which undoubtably improves on the experience. The wooden gallery seats offer little in the way of comfort or leg room and practically require hiring a sherpa to make the climb up the stairs...though still offer a better concert experience than the 300 level at the ACC or other large venue.

Now, the only thing that Massey Hall doesn't have going for it is that the crowds are often on the "polite" side. I have spent pretty much entire concerts sitting in my seat (which I decided to stick to after an unfortunate incident involving gum being thrown in my hair for having the audacity to actually be on my feet at a concert). That was not an issue on Tuesday. About 95% of the crowd were on their feet from the moment the band took the stage until the final bow.

The Killers new album (Day & Age) hits the shelves next week and world tour kicks off in the new year. In preparation for the tour, the band has played a number of smaller venues in a few major cities around the world, likely to work out the kinks performing the new material. From where I was standing, I really didn't see any. And I had a pretty good vantage point. Fourth row tickets on the aisle became 2nd row centre about 2/3 of the way through the concert when security detail managed to efficiently and quietly shuffle people around to fill in the area in front of the stage. The show itself was paced well combining the new material with better known hits (and they really have more of them than I had catalogued in my mind before the show) and Flowers is an endearingly dorky rock star with an impressive live voice.

They're back in Toronto to play the ACC in January and I'd recommend going if you were on the fence. As for me? As tempted as I am to see them again, I know that there's no way I'm going to top this experience so I'm better off with my memories....and all the vidoes on YouTube...

Don't screw up this election m'kay?

I really hope you folks south of the 49th parallel don't screw this thing up today.

I lamented in my facebook status a few weeks ago that I would gladly exchange my just cast vote in the Canadian election for one in the election happening south of us today. I am admittedly (and a bit sadly) more informed about the political situation in the U.S. than I am in my own damn country, though frankly, I do believe that the policies of the States end up having a larger impact on my day to day life than those here. Also, the entire Canadian political spectrum seems to be about half as wide and exist entirely to the left of that in the U.S. to begin with. My TV hubby put it best the day after the Canadian election when he said that the Conservatives were elected in Canada...which is roughly equivalent to the "Ralph Nader lovers for Peace" party in the U.S.

Frankly, part of me is just going to be happy that the election is over no matter what the outcome. It strikes me as highly amusing that Canadians were able to call an election, campaign, vote (and actually determine a winner) all in the span of the final 10% of the time that McCain and Obama have been on the campaign trail.

A larger part of me has been watching the debates, enjoying my daily 'Daily Show' time more than usual, reading the blogs and wanting to shout at the screen half the time Palin opens her mouth and will be sitting in front of the television tonight waiting to see if Barack Obama will make history.

And check out this link to log your own vote in the American election...wouldn't it be funny (and again sad) if more Canadians actually registered their vote on this site than actually voted in the election we held last month?

The new TV season so far

Now that we're into October and a good chunk of tv shows are back on the air...a couple of random thoughts.

• Shonda Rhimes...you suck a little bit. Here's the thing...I (like many others) loved Grey's when it appeared on Sunday nights. I own the first three seasons on DVD and have gotten others into the program. I stuck around through last year's mess and even put up with Gizzie. And the Grey's premiere was fine. I appreciate the fact that you came right out and said that the ABC promo with Rose telling Dereck she was carrying his child was a complete misrepresentation, good for you. I'm glad that Christina's impalement never seriously put her in danger (cause we've had enough of that on this show) and loved the intro of Kevin McKidd. My bigger beef with you right now is with Private Practice. I rewatched a couple of episodes that aired over the last few weeks and was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed them and was looking forward to the premiere last night. But here's where you lost me...Naomi has somehow mismanaged funds, run the practice into the ground, is making borderline unethical medical decisions for money and had to have the big strong man come in and take over??? I almost threw something at the tv.
• Heroes may just be losing me with the shifting futures, Mohinder reenacting The Fly, the petulant Hiro, Nathan's 'conversion' and the reappearing Linderman. I'm holding on by my fingertips mostly cause it's so much fun to see Veronica Mars and Weevil on the same show again.
• I'm hoping that Fox sticks with Fringe and The Sarah Connor Chronicles even though the ratings aren't killer. For Fringe, because Joshua Jackson is just extremely fun to watch and he and Anna Torv have a Mulder/Scully chemistry about them and because as previously mentioned, I do worship a bit at the altar of J.J. Abrams. For Chronicles, because Lena Headey is great as Sarah and who knew how good Brian Austin Green would be at playing a bit of a badass?
• Chuck has officially replaced Reaper as my favourite show about a 20-something slacker-boy forced to take on a 'job' he didn't ask for or want . Now, maybe that's not fair since Reaper hasn't even had it's premiere yet to try to win back my love, but it's a bit telling that that the season finale has sat unwatched taking up space on my PVR all summer.
• What does it say about the fact that I taped the premiere of The Amazing Race on Sunday but have no desire to actually watch it...