if it's not WWOOFing, maybe it's tweeting

~ This post has been a work-in-progress for five days; I began writing it on Monday, Jan 26 ~

First off, belated Happy Birthday wishes to Duane, who turned thirtysomething on Saturday! We sent you a card, Duane, but I was too cheap to use Xpresspost (≈$10 for a card!!!), so look for it in the next day or three. (Update: Apparently the card showed up Wednesday. Maybe it's time to buy another scratch'n'win.)

Day 48 of the Ottawa Transit strike, although it's really affected me, personally, for only 21 days...it's long enough already. Stop the insanity. (Update: OK, so threatened with back-to-work legislation by the Feds the day after they brought forth the "budgie" - nod to Air Farce's Chrétien-inspired skits - the city and the union agreed to binding arbitration at day 51. The good news is that buses will return to the roads in a week or so; the bad news is that there will be service on select routes only. Transpo's site says it may take up to 14 weeks for full service to return. I try not to utter obscenities as a rule, but to that news my response can be nothing other than wtf?!)

It hasn't helped morale any that we've been getting some decidedly Manitoba-like temperatures, albeit not quite as cold. It just makes one want to run away. (Update: it's warmed up, but we've received snow which makes running, not to mention walking, a challenge.)

Speaking of running away, we are. We spent some time with a travel agent a few Saturday mornings ago (Jan 10), but ultimately decided that we're a little leery of the economic situation - yes, despite the skeptic in me that thinks the downturn operates analogously to a self-fulfilling prophecy that someone in the upper echelons dreams up. Realistically, we're not in a position to spend a week at a posh resort.

The Ottawa Citizen's Reb Stevenson captured our dilemma in the introductory sentence of his article, "Wwhat in the wworld is WWOOFing?" To recap, World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms is an organization whereby travellers enjoy free food and lodging in exchange for their help with chores, which can be "anything from weeding to harvesting to tending animals."

Enter Plan B: a telephone to James's snowbird parents in Texas. We actually booked our flights Jan 13, before the article appeared. I toss in that trivia to show how shrewd we are, how attuned to the collective unconscious.

Not sure about the weeding and harvesting--when we visited in Dec 2004 our chores consisted primarily of dishes and refilling jugs of water from the dispenser at the community hall--but tending animals is a possibility. My parents-in-law own a rambunctious male Shi Tzu puppy named Sasha (or possible Sacha, after Trudeau's son's nickname), and Sam, a gorgeous, aloof, ferocious, declawed cat, who is exceedingly discriminating in her affections (she loves brother-in-law Brian, who used to feed her, and my father-in-law, who feeds her now).

I'm not crazy about the pup, but I'm going to suck it up. What's a little woofing in exchange for some fun in the sun? And this time around, I am fortifying myself with vitamins, because there are few things less miserable than descending upon one's in-laws, 3000 km from home, with a raging sinus cold.

So while present circumstances may leave something to be desired, I'm content 'cause the countdown's on. We're "tweatin'" ourselves to a mini vacation. Two more weeks...and that's something to make a little noise about.

no soup for me

It felt like a really, really, really long day.

I'm extremely thankful for my morning carpooling buddies who pick me up at 6am, but getting up at 5 is beginning to wear me down. This morning we got to the downtown parking lot at 6:35, and I reached the university by about 7:10. I don't mind the walk; it's rather refreshing. I had to wait for the Tim Horton's to open at 7:30. Met the student and a TA at 8am, then worked through a busy lab (i.e., lots of conversation) and a steady-paced lecture. With another 3-hour lab still ahead of me, I tell you, I was ready for lunch.

All I wanted was a simple bowl of soup--maybe cream of mushroom, broccoli, or leek & potato (mmm, that's my fave). I would have settled for what they call "garden vegetable medley," which is probably concocted from the leftover side dishes of the week before. (Right, Celina?) However, Le Snack in Marion Hall was serving something that looked like mostly watered-down beef consommé. So I girded up my loins and struck out for Faire Alimentaire at SITE. FA had two, count them, two chicken soups. Chicken Chowder and Chicken Rice or something like that. The point is they were both chicken broth based. The UO food service meatatarian soup nazis were obviously out to get me today. I didn't have the gumption to try my luck at the other Faire Alimentaire. (Fair indeed! I suppose the translation would be "to make food" or "to do food.") Good thing I had the foresight to get a Tim's donut and pack a few snacks.

I won't get into the details of the really, really, really long carpool ride home with a bunch of strangers (all university students), other than to say that fresh snow was falling as the driver-whose-first-language-is-definitely-not-English observed the posted speed limit and tailgated. And I was in the front passenger seat. Hitchhiking home is looking more and more like a viable option.

now that's class

Scoping out MetroNews, hoping for some confirmation on which way the striking bus drivers voted yesterday, I came across this gem (third paragraph from the bottom):

"I just want to thank the president for hosting us," Obama said. When a reporter asked Obama what he could learn from the mistakes of the four presidents surrounding him, he smiled and said he planned to learn from their successes. (emphasis mine)

Smooth.

I wanted to link to the SNL "Obama: I keep it cool" sketch, but at some point Hulu took over the world and won't let anyone outside the U.S. download it (grumble, grumble). It's been removed from YouTube. It seems the Tinkernut has a work-around. I can't be bothered, however, because I don't want to download anything (a) that may interfere with my current access all over the place, and (b) I'm not certain that I can undo. The only alternative is to sit through Britethorn's commentary on the sketch for a non-copyright-infringing excerpt (at 0:50-1:28).