New blog banners!

It’s been nearly nine months since I created any new blog banners from my photographs, and I’ve taken a few (!!) new pictures since then. So, my menfolk gave me exactly what I wanted for Mother’s Day: a couple of hours to futz about in Photoshop and make up some new banners.

Whaddya think?

New blog banners

The one with the pears doesn’t quite work as well as a banner as an image, and the one with the typewriter keys at the top is a little busy — but they’ll do! You can click the refresh button a few times to see them in action. There’s 15 custom header images altogether now, and they rotate randomly.

Did you get to do something you love to do on Mother’s Day, even if just for a few minutes?

A new Flickr group for Ottawa photographers and dilettantes like me!

While I’ve been on Flickr for more than five years, it was only in the last year or two that I really started participating in the social side of the medium, posting my photos to groups and participating in group discussions.

I’ve learned so much about photography, but I like to think I’ve also learned just a little bit about what it takes to run a group that’s helpful and welcoming and a fun place to hang out online. Lofty goals, but with a co-admin like Angela, aka jhscrapmom, I think we’re up to the task!

So please, if you’re in the Ottawa area and you take pictures, or like pictures, or like to hang around with peeps from Ottawa who take (or like!) pictures, come and play with us in the Postively Ottawa group.

Positively Ottawa

a group to share your ottawa and ottawa area photos
a group to share your photos if you are an ottawa area photographer
a group to share your ottawa blogs
a group to share your ottawa experiences
a group to share your photographic experience
a group to learn from
a group to ask questions in
a group to positively participate in

and in the spirit of positivity we welcome photographers from beginner to professional!

we play nice here. promise.
and we follow all flickr guidelines. we are funny like that.
this is a family friendly group, please moderate your photos accordingly.

Cuz, yanno, I don’t spend enough hours in the day with either a keyboard attached to my hands or a camera stuck to my face. *grin* And speaking of pictures, here’s my own favourite of the week.

449:1000 Yoshiback ride

A keeper, for sure, don’t you think? Now come and join our group — you know you want to!!

The Thousand Picture Project – it’s been a while!

Holy cats, it’s been more than six weeks since I posted an update about my thousand picture project! Don’t worry, I haven’t stopped taking pictures — far from it! While I haven’t quite kept up the 365 project pace of one photo every single day, I’ve still been carrying my camera with me and truly loving the act of taking pictures.

See, here’s what six weeks’ worth of Thousand Picture Project looks like:

Thousand picture project

1. 447:1000 Wake up lilacs! (TtV), 2. 446:1000 Bleeding hearts TtV, 3. 445:1000 Tulip sunshine TtV, 4. 444:1000 NRC shiny ball TtV, 5. 443:1000 April is Fickle, 6. 442:1000 Tulip macro abstract, 7. 441:1000 Tulips to the sky, 8. 440:1000 At the firestation TtV, 9. 439:1000 Hello spring TtV, 10. 438:1000 Book club, 11. 437:1000 Calypso tour – Pirate’s Aquaplay TtV, 12. 436:1000 Puzzle bokeh, 13. 435:1000 A little daff action, 14. Boots on the beach, 15. 434:1000 Hello rock!, 16. 432:1000 Splash TtV, 17. 431:1000 Toddlers on the beach, 18. 430:1000 (Almost) Happy Bench Monday TtV, 19. 429:1000 Spring at the park TtV, 20. 428:1000 Tristan at the Farm, 21. 427:1000 TtV Daff, 22. 426:1000 Baby Everitt (1 of 10), 23. 425:1000 Happy Easter!, 24. 424:1000 After the sidewalk paint, 25. 423:1000 Newborn toes!, 26. 422:1000 Katie TtV, 27. 421:1000 Just ducky, 28. 420:1000 Mancala TtV, 29. 419:1000 Daddy kiss, 30. 418:1000 Lucas on the loose

You’ve already seen a lot of these already, my Calypso Park pictures and my amazing day at the lake with Angela and my first family portrait shoot with the adorable baby Everitt. Here’s a few more of my favourites from the last month or so.

He’s two now, and soon I won’t be able to take these kinds of pictures of his adorable toddler parts. It makes me nostalgic for something that I haven’t even lost yet…

418:1000 Lucas on the loose

I love the light in this one, and how they’re staring right into each other’s eyes. (At least he’s finally learned to kiss with his mouth shut.)(I’ll let you figure out which “he” I mean.)

419:1000 Daddy kiss

I love this one a little bit because of the picture itself, but mostly because it makes me laugh when I remember that night. I’d found the puzzle in a closet and figured he was about the right age for it. I had no idea he’d become instantly obsessed with it. For more than an hour (and may I remind you, an hour in toddler time = three years in grown-up time!) we worked our way through the alphabet over and over again. “Where does the A go?” he would ask in the most adorable little singsong voice. And then he’d answer himself, without pausing for breath, “I don’t know! Oh, right there!” Then he’d show me the next letter and I’d tell him it was a K and he’d repeat, “Where does the K go? I don’t know! Oh, right there!” For AN HOUR. Way too cute for words or pictures!

436:1000 Puzzle bokeh

And then the flowers started blooming and I was delighted. I love love love how these tulips came out. I made the sky that vaguely turquoise colour with a Photoshop action called Urban Acid that I use sometimes in my TtV stuff. The colours really work well together, don’t they?

441:1000 Tulips to the sky

This is the same day, but with a close-up filter on my lens. (One of the things I love about the Thousand Picture Project, as opposed to the 365 Project, is that I can take five good pictures on one day and then dole them out as the picture of the day for most of a week. Yes, I’m aware that they are capricious and arcane rules that nobody cares about except me. But I’m okay with that.)

442:1000 Tulip macro abstract

And, I have been having a LOT of fun with TtV lately. All the gorgeous flowers I “discovered” last year during my 365 project are now equally engaging through the viewfinder of my trusty old Duaflex. See?

ttv spring

Okay, so that bottom right one is not really a flower. It’s the giant sphere sculpture on the National Research Council campus on Montreal Road. Doesn’t it look like an alien spacepod or something?

Speaking of through-the-viewfinder, last week I scored an old Starflex camera and I can’t wait to start taking pictures with it. I have to wait, though, because it had an exposed roll of film in it (!!) when I bought it, and I’ve handed it over to a friend with a film lab in his basement to see if it can be processed. How cool is that? I’ll let you know if anything — develops. (har har har, I slay me — I’m here all week, try the veal!)

The 100 Push-ups Challenge — Week 3 Revisited

Oops. I kind of dropped the ball on the 100 push-up challenge last week. First, the exhaustion test tired me out so efficiently on Monday that I didn’t do Day 1 until Tuesday — and after that, I was so off kilter that I completely forgot to do Day 2 until Saturday at the gym, and by then I’d pretty much given up on Week 3 entirely.

I call for a do-over!

Besides, is it me or is the jump from Week 2 intensity to Week 3 intensity a little harsh? From the end of Week 2 to the beginning of Week 3 the darn thing demands an extra ten or a dozen push-ups. Yeesh!

And hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you — what exactly is the definition of “rest time” between sets? I can sit and stare at my iPod counting down the 60 seconds between sets on Day 1, but the 120 seconds on Day 3 seems like an awfully long pause. Am I allowed to do anything except wish I were naturally muscular doing the rest period? I’ve taken to tidying between sets. Five sets with two minutes between each = 10 minutes of cleaning, which is more than I do on most days. (Not really. But every little bit helps!)

Or am I allowed to do some other exercise that doesn’t tax my already shaky arms? Leg lifts, maybe? What do you think? Or should I just lie on the floor in the child position and wait for the universe to send me more energy so I can get through the next set?

Week 3, here I come! Again.

If your life were a movie genre…

Yesterday, I alluded to a blog post I’d scrawled on a post-office receipt, and I suppose if I just take a second to decipher my chicken-scratch and publish it, I can stop worrying that I’m going to lose lose the damn thing! (Not that it’s a particularly inspiring blog post or anything — don’t want to get your hopes up. It’s really kind of ordinary, actually, but I liked the idea. Not that it’s not worth reading, either. I mean, um, maybe I should just get on with it?)

Anyway, ahem, I was puttering about in the car one Saturday afternoon, listening to Definitely Not the Opera on CBC Radio, and Sook Yin Lee was asking people, “if your life was a movie, what film genre would it be?”

I immediately loved this question. It took just a few seconds of considering various genres — black comedy, film noir, three-hanky drama, slasher fest, bromance or buddy pic — when I realized with a rather delightful jolt that I knew exactly what kind of film genre my life story would be: one of those John Hughes or Cameron Crowe quirky comedies.

C’mon, you know the ones — a cast of quirky but loveable *coughmisfitcough* characters, lots of snappy dialogue and smiles, moments of poignant drama, but an overall uplifting experience that leaves everyone happy and better off in the end. That’s totally how I (chose to) see my life.

What about you? If your life was a movie, what genre would it be and why?

The blog post that wasn’t

I have a lot of blog posts in my head, a few in my drafts folder, and one scrawled on a receipt from the post office and stuffed into my wallet. And you won’t be treated to any of them tonight because I’ve decided that rather than stay here with my nose pressed to the monitor where I would prefer to be (it’s a hell of a lot less work to just wag my fingers over the keyboard than to actually get off the couch and take care of all the things that are demanding my attention) instead I’m going to shut it down and go take the boys for an after-dinner walk.

Before I do, though, I have a quick question about my poor Lucas. We went back to the doctor today, and despite his having a clear chest and ears on Sunday, now he has an ear infection and some kind of chest infection. I wanted to ask you guys about something: the doc (not his usual) said: he has asthma caused by an allergic reaction to a virus. WTF? Not bronchitis, which is what it sounds like to me, but asthma, even though he has never had any sort of similar thing. ??? I asked if this was now a chronic condition and she kind of shrugged and said it’s the first time, we’ll have to see if and when it shows up again.

He’s got antibiotics for the ear infection, and two different puffers. Yeesh, just when you think you’ve got it all figured it, something new to contend with.

Anyway, your puffer and asthma and “allergic reaction to a virus” stories are welcome. Thanks!

Vote for The Motherhood — nominated for a Webby!

If you’ve been around for a while, you know I’m a huge fan of Cooper and Emily, creators of the blog Been There and the online community called “The Motherhood“. Now, this spectacular duo and their labour of love have been nominated for a (squeeee!!) Webby Award, and I need you to vote for them!

I’ve blogged about The Motherhood and my undying affection and admiration for Cooper and Emily before. In fact, what I wrote three years ago when The Motherhood was launched is still as true and fresh as the day I wrote it:

I first “met” Cooper and Emily through their blog Been There in early 2005. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in the summer of 2005, Cooper and Emily set up a clearing house where people who wanted to help could connect with people in need, and I was in awe of the power of two mom bloggers to make a real and concrete difference in the lives of people in devastating circumstances.

In the subsequent years, Cooper and Emily have raised awareness about (and even serve on the executive committee of) Moms Rising.org, and have recently spearheaded the BlogHer’s Act, a “year-long initiative to harness the incredible power of women online.” And they’ve even inspired a Canadian version.

As if being in the centre of all this hasn’t been amazing and incredible and enough to exhaust an entire cabal of bloggers, there is more! After more than a year of hard work, they’ve just launched another pet project, “The MotherHood.”


What is The MotherHood? In Cooper and Emily’s own words: “We asked ourselves — what if we built a big, beautiful tent where mothers can find, share and talk about all the interesting, hilarious, intriguing, inspiring, mobilizing, good stuff on the web, and, more importantly, find each other? And, with that, the heart and soul of The Motherhood was born.” There are link lists, discussion groups, favourite blogs, and much more on the way. It’s a great concept, and I know with Cooper and Emily behind it, it will be a wonderful place to hang out online.

Not only do I love and admire Cooper and Emily, but I’m simply dazzled by them. And more importantly, I’m inspired by them. All modesty aside, even this simple little blog can be a tool for change, and I can start – in my own small ways – making a difference.

Apparently I’m not the only ones who think Cooper and Emily are doing an amazing job of making the world a better place, because The Motherhood has been nominated for a Webby! How cool is that? A Webby is like the Oscars of the Internet — that’s the big time, peeps, and I’m dazzled to know someone who has been nominated.

The voting ends tomorrow, and I’m making a special appeal to you. First of all, if you haven’t already, go check out the new and improved Motherhood. More importantly, though, could you please take a moment to register and vote for The Motherhood in the Webby Awards?

Voting for Cooper and Emily is not just a nod of appreciation to two girls who have worked their collective butts off to make our corner of the Internet a better place. It’s a vote to tell the world that you have confidence in an Internet that is collaborative, inclusive and creative — all the things embodied in The Motherhood. I support Emily and Cooper’s work with my whole heart, and I think you should, too!

The 100 Push-ups Challenge – Week 3

Okay, bloggy peeps — time to check in with your push-up progress! I’m so tickled to see another handful of brave souls have joined the challenge. *waves to Liisa and Shannon and Ingrid and Andrea and Brenda and maybe Lynn, too*

So here’s my confession for the week: I only barely made it to Week 3. I didn’t realize until this week that there’s a test (a test!) every two weeks, and if you can’t make the minimum threshold then you are supposed to go back and re-do the previous week or two. I’ve been using the iPod app to track my progress, and when I switched it on to begin Week 3 last night, it told me I should do an exhaustion test — that is, do as many push-ups in a row as I could.

On the one hand, I was pretty pleased that I could do 16 good-form push-ups in a row. (Remember, less than a month ago I could do only one!) On the other hand, I only barely made it into Week 3 — the app and the web site both suggest that you progress with Week 3 only if you can do more than 15 push-ups in your exhaustion test.

And exhausted is right! As soon as I finished the exhaustion test and figured out where I was supposed to be, I tried to go ahead with the Week 3 Day 1 program of 10, 12, 7, 7 and 9 push-ups and could barely squeak out a set of 8 before collapsing in a quivering heap on the carpet. So I’m officially starting Week 3 tonight with a fresh run at it.

How are y’all doing? Making progress? I took a peek ahead, and I may be stuck in Weeks 3 and 4 for quite some time — you’re supposed to be able to do a minimum of 30 in a row (!!) before you progress to Week 5. This may be a longer six weeks than I thought!!

In which her two-year-old reminds her of the important things in life

Lucas has been sick for a couple of days now — fever, snot, cough, and holding his ears on and off. He’s been getting worse instead of better, and fearing ear infections or other bacterial infections, I made an appointment with the on-call ped today.

Even though he has not previously had any problems with going to the doctor, as soon as we told him that’s where we were going, he started to fuss. “No doctor, no doctor!” he cried as we tried to put on his coat and shoes.

“Okay,” I told him to settle him, cringing at the idea of a 30-minute drive downtown with a howling toddler, “we’ll just go look at some flowers. Would you like to go look at the flowers?” Thankfully, this appeared to be a much better idea than going to the doctor. And, knowing we would be swinging down Queen Elizabeth past Dows Lake just as the tulip beds were reaching full bloom, there would in fact be lots of flowers to admire on the way. To the doctor.

I should have known that on a perfectly sunny April morning, odds were better than good that Queen Elizabeth would be closed, and it was. I thought maybe the cows and the other bits of minutaie we’d admired on the way into town would have sufficed, but Lucas has a longer memory that I would have given him credit for. We were in and out of the ped’s office in about six minutes — no ear infection, clear lungs, just a wickedly bad cold — and on our way out Lucas looked at me and said, “Where are the flowers?”

I looked around and considered for a minute. I had a long to-do list in my head that did not include walking around the Glebe looking at the flowers. I didn’t even have my camera with me — for shame! But, it was a gorgeous morning. And the flowers were pretty. And, most importantly, a little walk around the block would both allow me to keep my word and make Lucas happy. The to-do list could wait.

As we set off around the block, I was still a little preoccupied. Ugh, I thought, did I choose the longest block in the Glebe? Could I get away with just walking a couple dozen meters and then turning around? But the sun was warm and the air was fresh, and as we stopped to admire magnolia petals and fading daffodils and interesting-looking stones, I found myself relaxing and enjoying the walk.

Lucas is normally a “me do it” kind of toddler, quite impatient with the idea of being held back by anything, so it might have been the fact that he was feeling unwell or just the moment that made him hold so tightly to my hand as we walked. I realized, as we inspected some particularly fascinating berries growing on a shrub, that in that moment I was perfectly content. Yes, I still had an otherwise miserably sick toddler on my hands, and I still had a lot of other crap to take care of during the rest of the day, and now it would take me just a little bit longer to get it all done.

But, in that sunny amble that took the best part of half an hour, my two-year-old son reminded me of the kernel of truth in the hoariest of clichés — you really do have to remember to stop and smell look at the flowers sometimes.

Thanks, Lucas.

Calypso water park sneak peek and giveaway!!

Are you ready? Less than 50 days remain until Ottawa’s hottest summer ticket opens: the Calypso Water Park east of Ottawa near Limoges. We’ve been waiting (im)patiently for more than two years for this park to open — did you know it will be Canada’s largest water park? And on a warm day late in April, I got a special sneak peek of the park to share with you!

436:1000 Calypso tour - Pirate's Aquaplay TtV

I was excited when I heard a new water park was coming, but honestly? I had no idea it would be this awesome. It’s not just a couple of waterslides — it’s really a giant water theme park, with more than 35 waterslides, separate toddler and kiddie play areas, Canada’s largest wave pool, a whole bunch of places to eat — it’s truly amazing.

From a recent Citizen article:

When the park opens, visitors will find 80-foot long extreme-style waterslides, a half-kilometre jungle river winding past a 52,000-square-foot wave pool, a beach, restaurants, shops, splash pads and pools for toddlers, and enough picnic tables and green space for 12,000 visitors a day. Calypso’s millions of litres of water will be kept at a constant 27 C and filtered every 90 minutes — every 30 minutes in toddler areas.

Calypso is located to the east of the city right off the 417, in the town of Limoges. It was a little less than an hour’s drive from Barrhaven. This is the front entrance, just getting its last touches of paint before the grand opening in six weeks.

Calypso tour - front gate

The park is enormous. The parking lot alone has capacity for 3,000 cars, and if I remember correctly, the park itself has a capacity for something like 15,000 people. You enter through a lovely little “main street” type area with a few different types of restaurants (from a cafeteria to an ice cream shop to a more formal sit-down dinner kind of place) and a souvenir shop. The water attractions are arrayed in well-spaced clusters around the grounds, with vast amounts of green space and picnic tables in between.

Moving clockwise through the park, the first cluster of slides is the Zoomerang, the Black Hole and Turbulence. “Thrilling rides with steep chutes, 360 degree curves in total darkness!” promises the park flyer.

Calypso tour - Zoomerang, Black Hole and Turbulence

Next is this giant water playground, the Pirate’s Aquaplay. It has tamer slides for smaller riders, and fun things like water cannons. The giant bucket at the top fills and dumps every few minutes. Perfect for the 5 to 10 year old crowd, I’d say.

Calypso tour - Pirate's Aquaplay

And for the littlest park visitors, there is a toddler park called the Zoo Lagoon.

Calypso tour - Zoo Lagoon

Calypso tour - Zoo Lagoon TtV

This will give you an idea of the scope of the park. I’ve just stepped away from the Zoo Lagoon, and turned my camera to the next cluster of slides. You can see the steep drop of the Fast Track on the left, the Boomerango and the White Water Extreme in the far middle, the Jungle Run river-raft ride in the foreground and the Turbo Lab at the far right. Behind me is the Pirate Aquaplay area for the kiddies, and the super-giant Calypso Palace wave pool is beside the Turbo Lab, with the entrance and "main street" bistro and restaurant area off camera to my right.

Calypso tour - Jungle Run

It’s HUGE!!!

I’m sure there is a perfectly good reason they’ve named this cluster of slides the Fast Track, Adrenaline and Vertigo. Not for the faint of heart! I think they should have called that skinny one with the near-freefall vertical drop “the Wedgie”. Yikes!

Calypso tour - The Fast Track, Adrenaline and Vertigo

This one of the Boomerango and the White Water Extreme is a shade out of focus (sorry about that!) but I wanted to show you what looks like a wicked-fun ending to the slide. You come flying out of the yellow Boomerango slide and it flings you up the blue and yellow striped wall until gravity yanks you back down again. Wheeeeeee!

Calypso tour - Boomerango

And yes, that’s a motorized lift, but only for the rafts. Your quads will get a workout when you visit the Calypso water park with all those stairs to climb!!

I didn’t get a good picture of the giant Calypso Palace wave pool, but it’s the size of three NHL rinks. There’s nothing rinky-dink about this park! Apparently it will be Canada’s largest wave pool (appropriate, considering this will be Canada’s largest water park!) and will have five different types of waves. And it’s good for all ages, as the depth starts at nothing and slopes gradually down.

I was impressed by every single facet of this park. From small details to big thrills, they’ve got a lot to offer. There’s a really neat biometric payment system described in the Citizen article:

One innovation […] will allow visitors to make purchases at restaurants or other facilities without having to carry money or cards. All they need is their fingerprint. If they choose, a person can put funds into an account at the park, either with cash, credit card, or debit card, and then have a fingerprint recorded electronically. Then, all that is needed to make any type of purchase in the park is to have the fingerprint scanned again to access the account.

Isn’t that brilliant? So you don’t have to carry your purse or wallet around with you or have someone watching it at all times. Hmmm, wonder if they could do that with my camera equipment?! And, you can bring your own picnic basket and blankets into the park, as long as you don’t bring any glass containers. I love that!

So the sneak peek was a lot of fun for me — thank you to the media relations director at Calypso for making me feel like a respectable journalist. And guess what? I’ve got two free day passes to give away to you! I was going to give them away as a pair, but I think I’ll split them up to spread the love around. (Actually, I was thinking of making you take me if you’re the winner! Am I allowed to enter my own draw?!)

Edited to add: sorry, the draw has ended, but if you’re looking for more ideas on great places to visit and things to do in Ottawa, check my “Ottawa Family Fun” archives! Or, you can read about our first visit to Calypso water park the very week it opened — so much fun!!

And if you’re wondering what’s up with the pictures with the black frame and the distortion — that’s “through the viewfinder” photography. The images are taken with my digital SLR camera, but through the viewfinder (ttv) of a 50-year-old Kodak Duaflex camera. Interested in knowing more? Check out this TtV tutorial!