bigger challenges

There are many more challenging things and things that are challenging that don't need to be. For example, the Rustle property tax bill was misplaced, but we still want to pay the bill. They have resent it but they won't tell me how much it was for as my name is not on the bill. We just want to pay the bill!

James has 3 exams tomorrow. Hoping he gets to bed early!

Challenges

We had a good service at Rustle, then picked up some juice on the way home. (James drinks a lot of juice- not apple juice anymore!)
I started the dinner and the laundry and was pretty tired so I took a nap.

Yesterday I spent some time cleaning James' room. I am not sure what had been attracting the ants but the sweep of cleaning seemed to help and there don't seem to be any left.

James (and all high school students) have exams starting this week. We tried to work on it tonight.

the return

Eventually made it in 3 hours late. Was busy at work the last 2 days trying to catch up from being away.

At lunch yesterday I hung our with Lisa. It was good to catch up.

Last night I went to a presentation that some of my friends were in called "Rhinoceros" based on the Ionescu play. It was quite fun and interestingly modernized. But it meant I got in quite late and so have lots of housework to get to today.

This morning I got groceries, did some yard work and some laundry.
In the afternoon I have to catch up on dishes, deal with James' room (he developed ants while I was away) and finish up the Church revenue Canada stuff.

Some older photos that I hadn't posted yet (from about a month or two ago):

At the campus bookstore the elevator is decorated as a police box:

 James' hockey banquet:

 The license plates were defective so these were turned in and they handed me new plates. Other than the line up at MYO , that was easy!

 A poor bird died in the front garden. It was really beautiful but I didn't know what it was. Wish it had lived!

ottawa day 4- it isn't over yet

The day began well. This was the breakfast (sorry about the hand I was trying to take the pictures surreptitiously while the Europeans weren't watching). It was an excellent breakfast and sustained me through the day.

 I accidentally left my conference pass at the B&B and only discovered it when I arrived at the Shaw center so I had to go back. By that time it was too late for my session so I took a little walk around Ottawa. I wasn't sure if these were handles for the seats or bicycle  lock ups:

 I wasn't sure what this building was because it seemed old but had this huge loading dock door:

 Some other photos from the walk:

 Then there was a session on appreciative advising. Then there was lunch

 Then I went to a Pecha kucha, which was 5 short presentations with 20 slides advancing every 20 seconds (for each one). They were very well done

 After that there was a presentation from Waterloo's advising team on how they structured their advising. Then things were starting to wrap up and be disassembled at the shaw center

 We went to the Rideau center (the 4 of us who were taking the 5pm train) and had a snack. Then we took a high risk taxi to the Ottawa train station:

 Then onto the train

Everything seemed to be going well but it appears that someone committed suicide in front of the train and so we are stopped waiting for the coroner. There are kids playing soccer nearby who appear unaffected. They are serving pretzels so we may be here for a while.

Ottawa day 3

The B&B I am staying at is still filled with Europeans so no pictures of breakfast. It was waffles. I had to explain them as they had not heard of them. Very tasty.

I managed to scoot to the Shaw Center for 9am for an Academic advising COP. I wasn't sure what it was and I'm not sure that I still do but I met some other advisors which was neat.

The snack was mango berry smoothies. I found out that they are trying to focus on protein and fruits.

Then there was a session that I thought was not well put together, I was deciding between another one but that one was going to be in French. It might have been better.

Lunch was better today- chicken on a rice risotto with a nice berry crumble dessert.

Then there was a presentation on alcohol use on campus and how that effects mental health, focusing quite a bit on Queens.

Then a snack of pretzels and popcorn.

 Looking out of the shaw center.

 Then there was an hour off for exploring

Then back for a presentation by U of T Engineering on how they are working on unifying their advising.

Another hour off and then to "The Grand" for dinner- I had lasagna.

Now to sleep and tomorrow is the last day. I will miss Ottawa!

ottawa day 2

The conference has begun! The first speaker (not in the picture) was Frank O'Day. He was an inspirational speaker- I enjoyed him very much. There wasn't much room in the room- I was a bit late because the breakfast here didn't allow much time (which I knew) but I had been successfully navigating Ottawa by "sense" and I had seen the Shaw Center on my walk to the B&B so I wasn't much worried. But I didn't realize there was nothing visual to the Shaw Center coming the other way and that the entrance was around the other side.

I did not take a picture of the breakfast as I was sitting with Europeans and they don't do this sort of thing. It would have been worth a picture though. He told me what the eggs were but I forgot - it was like an omelette but it was round. Toast (fancy bread), potatoes, fruit. It was really, really good. This is important as you will see later.

 Frank talked about Hope, vision and action, how his life changed around from living on the street and how people helped impact that change.

After that I went to a session on first year communications and how to carefully plan your communications. At the session I met lots of great people but one from Queen's -Wesley who I knew the name but had never met in person- now he is the sort of person that conferences are really good for as he is very social. It is more difficult for me but I am trying to stretch myself. This is a pretty good space for this as most people are in student support to tend to be at least supportive types!

Then on to lunch, which presentation wise was very good. What could be wrong with pulled chicken you ask? Well, I got my plate, had to walk 5,000 hours to find a table, which was fine, but when I took 1 bite, the tortilla completely fell apart and was so dry that I finished my glass of water on pretty much the first bite. And didn't want to have to walk back to the water station before finishing my meal. So I ate a few bites more and the veggies, gave up on the lunch and headed for the water station where I drank 2 full glasses to try to recover.

 Then on to dessert. This is not an egg. I don't know what it was but it was pretty good, except there were forks by it and not spoons and it needed a spoon.

 These coconut bites were good as well. the breakfast and this dessert sustained me.

 Shaw Center facts found in the bathroom, put me on a quest to find the wall of three rivers.

 I asked at the help desk but noone knew where the wall of 3 rivers was, so I went to my next session that was about supporting students on the Autism spectrum. Then there was another nutritional break. Which looked fine but the chips were very dry. I drank a lot of water on this nutritional break.

 Then I returned to the help table and they had found the wall of 3 rivers in plain sight! All logs are redeemed from the bottom of the 3 rivers.

 Then another session that was communication featured- using new technologies to communicate with students.

 Then off for dinner. I went to the Rideau Center as I googled there was a crepe store there- I had to wander all over to find it, but I found it!

 I ordered a popeye dinner crepe (spinach, tomato, cheese) and an apple and caramel dessert crepe. The dinner crepe was ok and I ate it because I am an adult. But the dessert crepe was amazing!

 I found a disney store at the Rideau Center. The staff were pretty peppy (as I suppose one would expect at Disney) and offered to let me pick the sing along song. However, I was too old to know the list they offered me and so they had to help me pick. We did a Beauty and the Beast one.

 After the Rideau Center I headed back to the B&B and dropped off my stuff at the B&B and headed out on another Ottawa walk. Yesterday I did tourist Ottawa. Today I did inner city Ottawa. The demarcation zone happened quite quickly. As soon as I crossed Rideau street there were guys happily cleaning car windows with dirty squeegees. Then there were lots of people sitting by the street. Then there were angry guys having a fight. It was very hot out, so I wondered why they wouldn't go to the Rideau Center for AC but maybe that crosses a zone. Anyway I didn't take pictures in the zone as I figured that would make me look more like a tourist than whatever they were taking me for. But when I came out of the zone I realized that I had missed the road that I was looking for, so I decided to go to my second planned stop of a park by the river. I knew I was on the road that it showed but I didn't find the park, only what seemed to be the Chinese consulate with bars and wired and electric devices. Maybe the park was misnamed. Traveling on from there I found a seniors home. This is the bridge to get there.

 The old bridge I guess. I got to the river and realized that I had gone further than I planned, so I turned around, no park to be found.

 I took this for my mother to show how the bike lanes are protected.

 Here is something to watch out for- I kept expecting them to pop out of the bushes, but nothing- I didn't see even 1.

 Then I went back to trying to find my first stop but the way Ottawa works is that roads start and stop and bend in very random sort of ways so I wandered around zig zagging around the streets until I found the first street that I had missed. Back on track I walked down Murray St. by the low imcome housing. Passed some security people. The road was a dead end but I knew the road on google maps looked like it extended. Google maps did not see the fence. So I hiked through a parking lot and was correct that the street I was looking for began there. I found the national house of Prayer. I stopped to take a picture and a man with a very nice dog asked me if I wanted to look inside. Did I ever! His wife Fran showed me around. It was a beautiful old house that used to be a convent, but no AC so they were pretty hot. I wonder how they handled the heat when it was a convent? I love old buildings.

 Then Fran and I walked out as she was heading to SDM which was on my way so we walked together and she told me about the community. I was interested in their needle drop boxes.

After leaving Fran I walked on Rideau St and there were lots of police cars at the LCBO. There have been lots of sirens in the night but hopefully it will be a quiet night now!