A wet dog and soccer parents

As I was leaving Sunnybrook dog park today I met up with a couple who were leaving at the same time.  I recognized their dog as he'd been playing with mine for a while in the park.  They asked if I was their son's soccer coach.  Sure enough, I recognized this nice couple who I hadn't seen for quite a years.

As we were getting our dogs to our cars, we talked about our dogs, and they said they had recall problems with their dog (like mine) and it had ran off a while back from this parking lot.  They only got it back after it had found another dog of interest.  I said I got a little worried about Kooper at regular parks (not officially off-leash, fenced parks) and said once he got bored of other dogs and we were in a regular park, it gets very difficult to get him back.

We said our goodbyes and I began the tricky process of taking the leash off Kooper and closing the (station wagon) trunk.  I noticed there was another dog in the parking lot and sure enough it was too big a temptation for Kooper.  He leapt out of the trunk and went to say hello.  As I approached, he ran off down the nature trail toward another dog.  From there he quickly noticed the stream and started exploring the soft ice along the bank of the stream.  I noticed the water was moving quickly and began to really worry.  He was oblivious to my calls and ran further upstream as I approached.  I couldn't get very close as the bank was steep and the ice, I'm guessing, too thin to hold me.  The game continued and sure enough he got too close to the edge and slipped into the stream.  I'm not certain how deep it was, but I was fearing the worst.  He was obviously very surprised when he fell in, but luckily it only took a couple of tries over about 10 seconds and he jumped out and ran up the bank to the trail and met up with another dog.  I grabbed him and walked back to the car.  He didn't seem cold at all and for him it appeared his adventure was just another walk in the park.  I hope he learnt a lesson.

He's Just Not That Into You

I came home from shinny (hockey) last night and my wife was watching He's Just Not That Into You on-demand on The Movie Network (TMN).  I watched a little and found some parts quite interesting and quite funny (although I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be funny), but then some other parts just didn't do it for me.  


A daily photo blog I follow is Daily Dose of Imagery.  Today's posting (yesterday's photo) is entitled not that into you with a well captured simple moment on the subway.

Jully Black

On my walk home today I stopped in at HMV to check out a few new releases (always released on Tuesdays theses days).  I noticed Jully Black's new album at one of the listening posts and put the headphones on to listen to track 1 - Running which is listed as her single.  Pretty decent track - as I remove the headphones, thh same song is playing on the storewide audio system.

Kensington

As you may know, I have a daily photo blog called 365inCamera.  


I was planning on visiting Kensington Market this afternoon for my daily shot (although I ended up finding something pretty interesting on the walk there and didn't make it all the way to Kensington).


I had a quick look at my Flickr comments in the morning and noticed one from a Sha_sha2008 (a Flickr member I didn't recognize).  I had a quick look at her photostream and noticed her shot of Kensington Market in her Photo Content Winners set on her home page.

Mysterious noises

When I got home from my late night ultimate game last night (this morning), I went downstairs for a snack and to wind down.  I noticed a high pitched buzzing went I entered the family room and then tried to find the remote to watch a little TV.  Our universal remote was not in its usual spot and its screen was blank - the (rechargeable) batteries were run down.  So I fished around for various remotes and did a manual power on for a few components.  I grabbed the universal remote as I wanted to recharge its batteries, but the buzzing noise was getting very annoying so I started to walk around trying to isolate the mysterious sound.  The noise sounded a little like one of the pot lights ready to blow.  But no, that wasn't it.  I wandered over to the downstairs bathroom and the noise seemed to be a little louder.  I opened the utility closet door in the bathroom and thought the sound was coming from the natural gas pipe.  I walked back into the family room and also checked the gas fireplace, the noise was there too.  I checked in the furnace room and the noise was there too.  But I still couldn't isolate it.  I put the remote down and did another check, but the mystery continued.  A went back to the family room and went over to the TV and audio components and bent down a little to see if I could hear any better.  Sure enough, the noise was coming from the universal remote, the batteries were run down enough so they couldn't power the screen, but apparently not enough to cause the remote to emit an annoying high pitched buzzing sound.

So I get back to my TV show, last week's episode of Fringe.  The mystery involves some metamorphic, mutated humans and the agents track down a lead to a small town called Edina.  When the arrive in Edina, all the agents hear a weird humming sound.  I won't spoil the source of the humming, but I thought the coincidence was comical considering my earlier adventure and the look on Walter's face.

High Fidelity

In my coincidence last week, entitled An Education, I noted the work of Nick Hornby and have since started reading his latest book, Juliet, Naked.  One of Hornby's books that was turned into a movie and one I really liked was called High Fidelity.  I just saw in this week's NOW magazine that the stage version is opening tonight running through the end of month at the Hart House Theatre.

Delivery

We're waiting for our new washing machine to be delivered today.  Of course, they can only tell us it's going to be between 7am and 5pm.  So we just see a delivery van pull up outside and take out a boxed washing machine - but it's a Samsung, not a Frigidaire like we ordered.  Sure enough, the delivery is for one of our neighbours down the road.  We're heard that a few people had appliances break down over the holidays.  But a new washing machine delivery on the same block on the same day ?

Ultimate food court

I went down to the North end food court at The Eaton Centre today to load up on some wonton noodle soup and bumped into an old friend of mine.  Tom is a lawyer and works in one of the office towers so I've known he works in the 'hood for a long time, but I don't think I've ever seen him close to our offices (I'm in another of The Eaton Centre's 3 office towers) in over 5 years.  I know Tom from ultimate [frisbee], we played on a few teams together and went to the world championships back in 1995.  One small coincidence is that I sent him a quick email the other day wishing him happy birthday.  As I'm walking out of the foodcourt with my take-out soup I bump into another old friend from ultimate - Russell.  I've never seen him out of ultimate gear and here he was dressed like he'd just stepped out of GQ (he was on his way to a meeting).  Turns out that Russell's office is in the same tower as Tom's.

An Education

I was in the bookstore today and also doing some browsing online (Amazon always seems to have the best prices in Canada).  I recently finished The Lost Symbol and I was looking for some new fiction (as I already have a few Gladwell non-fiction books I'm currently reading).  I came across Nick Hornby, I'm not familiar with his books, however I've seen some of the movies adaptations, incl. High Fidelity and About a Boy.  I liked the premise of his new novel Juliet Naked and order it on Amazon.  But I did notice another title that sounded interesting, An Education, and also saw that it had been made into a movie.  I hadn't heard of the book or whether the movie was new or had already come and gone.  But the list of actors was pretty decent.  After work, I duck into 10 Dundas West where there happens to be an AMC movie theatre to make a quick call home.  While I'm talking to my wife, I notice a poster for An Education, now playing !

Unfortunate pricing coincidence

Coincidence - I've had my eyes on the Nikon 18-200mm lens for some time as a walk-around and travel lens and a replacement to our kit and telephoto lenses.  The current, best price of the older version is $729 at Blacks.

Our front-load washing machine broke over the holidays.  The breakage is severe enough that a repair doesn't make sense so we need to buy a new washer.  The dryer is mounted on top of the washer so choices for a replacement are limited because of the need for the correct attachment with the dryer.  I called The Bay for the latest price for the same model as our old washer - $729.  The sales person who we've bought from in the past will give us a 15% discount.  But still, those prices are unfortunately the same !