My last post of the year is usually about accomplishments, goals not yet met and hopes for the days after the calendar flips over. But this year was dominated by an unexpected occurrence in May. The inexplicable loss of our young friend, Lauren Davis Shirakawa, and how her passing has forever changed the lives of our dear friends, her parents, and therefore our lives as well. …
This year I put my money where the farm is, and decided to shop locally for a bird. The Turkey Shoppe is a few minutes’ drive away in Talbotville, so in I went and got Mr. Frozen Turkey at a good price. I chose frozen because I wanted to get him early and beat the rush. …
As you likely know, I’m a bit of a decor nut and a crafty person. Derek has a creative mind and he’s good with a saw and hammer. We have collaborated on countless projects and enjoy the process. So it only makes sense to us that we take it to the next level. …
Poor Steve Harvey. He’s the subject of a million jokes after his huge gaffe at Miss Universe last week. …
For the past few years, I’ve set out our leg lamp inspired by the movie, A Christmas Story, on a table in front of our livingroom window. Outside of the holidays, the lamp lives in our guest bedroom, where it provides illumination of the dresser top. This year I decided it would stay there. …
Derek and I don’t make public declarations about our relationship. Occasionally, there’ll be a compliment or a jokingly sarcastic comment on social media, but that’s mostly meant to entertain. Whatever we think or feel about each other tends to stay between us. …
Sometimes media get it wrong. But sometimes we’re working from information that gets it even wronger! (I know!) …
When I told my brother about how I ended up with a mittful of Starbucks cards, he called it Ungifting and suggested I might be on the leading edge of a new trend. I’ll share the story and let you decide. …
When it’s gotten stressful at work, I’ve often jokingly said, “I’m going to start an alpaca farm”. …
Thanks to my former colleague Mike Eppel for digging this up from his “Welcome to CKNX” kit in 1989. …
We are, for the most part, a tolerant society. We are generally accepting of those with lifestyles that are different from ours. We don’t have to empathize with it and we likely never will but we can accept that transgendered people, for example, feel trapped in the wrong bodies. But what a Toronto man has done is pretty difficult to accept even for people with the most liberal viewpoints. …
This is how it happens. You get one cat. Then you get another. Then you stop thinking that talking about your cats is boring to other people. Then you buy Christmas stickers in the scrapbook section of Michaels and it’s suddenly out of control! …
Growing up in the shadow of Hamilton, CHCH TV was our big-city television station. It was like SCTV before there was an SCTV. In the Hamilton era of my broadcasting career, I was fortunate enough to appear on CH and do voice-overs for promos and commercials. …
Every time I read another declaration from a US Republican about refugees, I feel the need to balance it out by making a charitable donation or suppressing a bit of gossip – something that’s an effort toward doing good for my fellow humans. …
Some people are cat people, some are dog people and for a while, I was a lizard person. …
We’re going to an Ugly Christmas Sweater party this weekend, much to the chagrin of elderly Christmas fans everywhere. …
A tireless woman I know named Mandi was touring the London Food Bank a few years ago and noticed that in addition to all of the toiletries available, there were no feminine protection items. She decided to do something about it and Tampon Tuesday was born. …
This weekend gave us the opportunity to use fresh eyes to show our dear friend Eric around London. Â …