The sky is the most amazing shade of blue this morning. Once you factor in the colours of the changing leaves, the visual is stunning. If I can, I’ll try to get out this afternoon and get some pictures taken.

Last night the hubby said there were snowfall warnings and the previous day the temperature had dipped to -2 during the night. This in a city that less than a week ago was experiencing +30 heat. I was so jealous I was wishing rainstorms on his head for days.

It’s been a while since I’ve been home. I’ve forgotten how long fall can last in the maritimes.

Despite all the complaining I do about the town I grew up in, you can’t fault it’s beauty. The leaves are changing colour and I’m surrounded by seas of yellow, gold, red, brown and green.

It’s another Red Friday. I can’t wait until I get to see the hubby and have my new Red Friday t-shirt. I can finally stop wearing my mother’s clothes on Fridays!

There’s so much going on in the news today – Carolyn Bennett dropping out of the Liberal leadership campaign (surprise, surprise – NOT!). I ought to be ashamed to say that I really didn’t have a clue who she was before she announced her intentions to run, she didn’t make any sort of impact over the past few months, and I’m not the least bit surprised by her departure. Perhaps she should have considered raising her public profile outside of Toronto before attempting to gain the leadership of a national party.

Then again what does it say about your abilities to raise your profile when I know more about a former ex-pat running for the position (Ignatieff) than I do about Ms. Bennett. Perhaps I should be mortified that I know little to nothing about neither Ms. Bennett nor Martha Hall-Findlay – the only other female candidate. In fact, I couldn’t pick their names, faces, political histories, or ridings out of any wet paper bags. The male candidates are all familiar to me – at minimum I know their names, a bit about their doings (or lack thereof) in parliament, and have some idea of the platforms they’re campaiging on.

I have no idea if this is the result of a media bias against the female candidates or if they just did absolutely nothing to place themselves in my line of vision over the last few months…either way, I will have forgotten Ms. Bennett’s name in a few weeks and this disturbs me not at all.

Technorati Tags: canadian politics, liberal leadership, carolyn bennett

In my hot little hands – or on my cold little toes, depending on your point of view – I now have two new pairs of shoes. Let the celebrations begin!

Sure, lots of people wouldn’t consider a woman buying new shoes celebration worthy, but those people have never had to go shoe shopping with me before.

I have tiny (but oddly wide) feet. Years ago, it was pretty easy to find a pair of size 5 wide shoes. They’d be a bit big, but I’d manage. Apparently it was next to impossible to find ladies size 10 at that time. Now the larger ladies shoes are everywhere I look and I have an easier time finding shoes to fit if I purchase them in the children’s department. I choose not to do so, as children’s shoes aren’t meant to last more than a few months before they fall apart and they’re definitely not designed with comfort, functionality and an adult work environment in mind.

Seriously, who wants to wear frilly pink shoes with ruffles and bows to the office or out to a bar?

I tend to search long and hard before finding shoes that will both fit and wear well. I also tend to pay through the nose for the privilege of putting anything other than sneakers on my feet. For example, Doc Marten’s (any style) are comfortable and can be worn day-in and day-out in all four seasons for over four years. This assumes I’m wearing them for approximately 300 of the 365 days in the year. I know this through extensive wear and tear testing. Unfortunately, in order to get a pair of Doc’s in my size I need to 1) travel to Britain to purchase them or 2) special order them in Canada. Unless my family is already en-route to Britain, I tend to choose option 2. Of course, option 2 comes with a pretty hefty price tag for a pair of shoes. Most companies charge more than double the normal price of the shoe in order to special import a single pair in a child’s size. Where an average person can purchase a pair of 3 button docs for $89 CAD, I’ve been charged between $175 – $250 CAD (per pair) to purchase a much smaller set of the shoes.

Considering how well they wear and how long they last, I don’t mind paying the price for the shoes. The problem is that I can’t go through life just wearing Doc’s. Occasionally grown-up events, such as weddings and fancy family events, intrude and I find myself in need of a pair of high heels.

I’s not enough to need silly women-type shoes – I also have style requirements when I’m shopping. Seeing as my middle name should be klutz the heels mustn’t be higher than an inch or I’ll end up killing myself. In addition, they can’t be strappy shoes or open toed shoes. I need something that’s going to fully support my foot or I may find myself being fitted for a cast. You laugh now, but that’s only because it’s funny when someone other than yourself is injured in stupid or senseless klutz type accidents. I’ve yet to meet someone else who has broken their foot by standing up after sitting on a couch!

To add to my shoe shopping horrors, I have two dogs. Both have chewed my shoes to shreds at some point in their lives. Most often they attack newly purchased shoes. Those that have barely made it into the safety of the closet for 72 hours seem most prone to being victimized. I have taken to hiding shoes from the dogs (one learned how to open the closet door) which of course means that I can’t find them anymore either.

Normally, shopping for dress shoes to fit is a multi-day experience in torture. Not only for the feet – shoved in and out of every small sized ladies dress shoe I can find – but for the hubby who was dragged from store-to-store and mall-to-mall while I shopped. I didn’t drive and the choice was to drag him along for the ride or risk not seeing him for days on end. In exchange for his dedication he gets to pick out shoes for me to try on. This sometimes results in my attempting to toddle around on 3-5 inch spiked heels or wrapped in thigh-high boots. *see above notes about being a klutz*

The last pair of shoes took 3 days to find and lasted less than a month before Hypnos got his pawns on them.

This past weekend while shopping for new slippers for dad, I managed to find 2 pair of shoes that not only fit, but were appropriate for all the girly things I may be called upon to do in the next few months. I walked in and out of the store, cuddling the new shoes close, in less than 45 minutes.

I am amazed. You should be too.

Technorati Tags: shoe shopping, Doc Marten’s

Stephen Downes is blogging from an international airport again. In his entry titled How to Write Articles Quickly and Effectively, he shares his wealth of experience and passion for writing with an apparent goal of improving the lives and productivity of those around him. Consider the potential audience available through posting these techniques on the Internet. Add to that the audience garnered from Stephen’s daily newsletter (OL Daily) and futher add the audience of other bloggers who take the time to comment on Stephen’s advice, offer some of their own, and expose the concepts to an entirely new audience.

Today’s offering is a reminder not only of the immediacy and power of blogging during travel, but that nothing worth learning should be withheld.

This is the learning experience as it should be. An open dialog between many where-in ideas are shared, modified, demolished, re-built and/or dissected. In order to learn, I share with you. You, in turn, share with me. Separately, but together, we evolve our understanding of the concepts discussed.

Consider how much better the world could be if knowledge sharing was the norm rather than knowledge hoarding. Sure, we’d all like to believe that a free exchange of ideas is occuring in both the corporate and academic world, but in my experience the adage knowledge is power is as accurate and powerful today as it was in the mid-ages. In general, humans do a rotten job of sharing and working towards laying a level playing field for all who come to the table.

As for the advice provided in today’s article? All I can say is “Stephen, you’ve been holding out on me!”. I really could have used the guidance provided when I returned to university as an adult learning (10 years divorced from formal learning environments) and rusty at writing anything outside of code, reports, and random rants. While I feel I’ve slipped back into the swing of writing for an academic environment, I’ll certainly be keeping this link handy for future reference.

Technorati Tags: stephen downes, writing tips, knowledge sharing, knowledge hoarding

I love Dust my Broom. Hell, I blog or tip my hat to this particular location on the ‘net so often that I really should dedicate an entire category to it. It’s a rare day indeed when I don’t traipse over to view the site, and it’s one of the few sites I’ll post comments to on a semi-regular basis (by my standards).

It’s with particular joy that I announce to any of my poor readers – who’ve yet to make the leap over to the broom – that Darcy has been interviewed. I know, by definition anyone could interview another and it wouldn’t be big news. Darce (if I may be so bold as to familiarize his first name) was interviewed by the Mountain View Gazette.

What attracted me to DMB originally was Friday Night Blues and Beer. What kept me coming back on daily basis was the heart behind the writing. Reading posts from Darcy and later Shere Khan and Raskolnikov, you feel like you have a direct line to the thoughts whirling around in both their little grey cells and their souls. There is honesty, laughter, anger, joy and sorrow in the posting. I aspire to write and inspire as well as the DMB team (now including Lisa) does.

Ridiculously, I feel like a proud mom showing off pictures of her kids.

Technorati Tags: Dust my Broom, Darcy Jerrom interview, Mountain View Gazette