A Few Quick Notes 591

-We're in the midst of another hot and humid day in Ottawa.  As we keep creeping further into September I keep tricking myself into thinking that we'll soon be past such days - but they keep on coming.

-Our squirrel keeps coming back, though it's damage from this morning's visit wasn't as bad as a few visits.  I guess I really need to consider ramping up my cayenne use if I want to got a few days without these guys visiting and tearing everything up.

-So it turns out that the Quebec election was pretty eventful.  Not only did the PQ do a little worse than expected (along with the CAQ), the Liberal outperformed expectations.  At the end of the day the PQ managed only four more seats than the Liberals (and they were about nine seats short of majority territory).  Maybe most impressively, the PQ, the Liberals, and the CAQ all received less than 1/3 of the total vote - though the Liberals and PQ were close with 31% each.

And the least expected development of the night was likely the shooting that occurred at the PQ election night party.  Fortunately I had called it a night by the time this happened so I didn't trick myself into thinking that I should watch the coverage as the details of the shooting emerged.

-Aside from the sinkhole coverage, the big news from Ottawa today is that by 2014 there should be a AA team based here.  While I'm a little bummed out that we'll have to wait another season, I'm definitely looking forward to attending some minor league baseball.

-So if you're looking for some ongoing courtroom drama consider following the case regarding Toronto's mayor, Rob Ford.  It seems that if this conflict of interest based case goes against Ford he could find himself out of a job in the near future, or at least that is one interpretation of the possible outcomes.

Celebrities in my neighbourhood

Yesterday I forgot to mention that former Jays player Roberto Alomar was at the hotel across the way from our apartment building. Jeannette, whose program was having a conference in the same hotel, suggested that he was in town some kind of fundraising lunch. I really didn't know that baseball was big enough in Halifax for someone like Alomar to be a draw, especially in the winter.

Some how I missed it, but apparently Alomar was just elected to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. I have to imagine that he is the spitiest player there.

I wonder if he is still in town and, if so, whether or not I will see him today?

Score
Cameron 10
Neil 0

A happening 24 hours in Halifax

Yesterday afternoon Neil and Rebecca returned to St. John's for a week of high-level math and family fun. Almost as soon as they left the peninsula I put myself in extrovert mode and started attending a series of public performances.

I started things off with a nice comedy show.

Several weeks ago I noticed that our neighbourhood blues bar, Bearly's, plays host to a weekly Wednesday night comedy show called Laughter Burner. What made me really want to give this show a shot was that it is hosted former Stop Podcasting Yourself guests, Dylan Rhymer and Ben Mills.

After several weeks of conflicting squash sessions, I was finally able find myself free on a Wednesday evening last night. Not only was I free, but I was also able to talk Jeannette into attending the show with me. At about 8:00 we made our way over (as that was the advertised starting time), though it turns out that we were there quite a while before things started. Actually, I am pretty sure that we were the first people there for the show (though there were a few others in the bar for standard bar related activities). Fortunately we were able to pass the time with a friendly discussion about the qualities of the actors who have portrayed James Bond and the relative merits of their portrayals of James Bond.

The show, which consisted of a number of short acts puntucated by draws for crappy prizes, was great. Aside from the hosts, we were also both particularly taken with the final act of the night, Peter White, a fellow sufferer of kidney stones. Though neither Jeannette nor I was lucky enough to win one of the sets of sub-par prizes (which always include a sample of cheese), we were both convinced that the show was worth our time and worth visiting again. Hopefully we will be able to make it again next week (or at least to another show in the near future).

Much to my surprise, the live performance theme was continued today when I met Jeannette (who provided the following photos) for lunch and we happened upon a jazz band performing next to the ferry terminal. After a few minutes we started to get the sense that the band we were seeing, 6:20 Jazz Lab from Mobile Alabama, was something of a religious group. The emphasis on spirituals was quite striking, as was the fact that the band had a "drama department." It seems that the drama side of the group was used to provide either dancers or costumed characters to match the theme of the song.



Based on some Googling, I got the sense that this band is in town for a number of Christianity-themed performances. Unfortunately I couldn't find a proper website for them, or a real explanation about what they were doing on the waterfront today.

Alongside this group, and seemingly somehow related to them, was former major leaguer Bernie Carbo. At the time I had no idea who Bernie Carbo was, or why he might be manning a personal appearance stand next to the Halifax harbour.



After I returned to the apartment I was able to learn that Carbo, most famous for his pinch hit home-run for the Boston Red Sox in game 6 of the 1975 World Series tied the game and preceded Carlton Fisk's game-winning 12th inning home run, suffered from a number of addictions before finding solace in Christianity. It seems that Carbo, after becoming a hairdresser, now spends much of his time with church related activities.

While hunting down information about Carbo and the 6:20 Jazz Lab I happened to swing by the TD Halifax Jazz Festival website and see that there was a free Klezmer performance at 2:30 this afternoon by the Halifax group Der Heisser. Because I didn't have anything scheduled for this afternoon I decided that I would try to swing by the jazz festival main tent and take in some of this show. Though I didn't stay for the entire show (it was a little hot for me), I did really enjoy the part of the show that I saw.

These three performances were really quite useful as I was once again able to confirm that I am really only interested in seeing performances that are indoors and that have proper seating. Having to brave anything less than ideal conditions really impedes my ability to enjoy a performance. That being said, I am considering attending another free jazz festival performance tomorrow afternoon.

A Few Quick Notes 370

-It was a pretty nice day until just a few hours ago, when it started raining. Unfortunately, it seems that the forecast is suggesting that this is the type of weather that we will be getting tomorrow.

-For dinner tonight I prepared a pork roast, mashed potatoes, carrots, and beans and corn. I also quickly made a raspberry pie for desert. For those of you who are curious, the lard-based crust was light and flaky.

-The pork roast was part of a relatively large piece of pork loin that I purchased a few days ago. I turned the portion of meat not included in the roast into pork chops. I was quite surprised to see that I ended up with 12, I really would have expected about 7 had I been asked to guess in advance (but fortunately I wasn't asked to make such a guess).

-I have started testing out the free samples of male-targeted toiletries I received a few days ago. As expected, I have noticed that I have that traditional from-a-bottle/stereotypical man smell. As nice is give myself the pretense of being particularly manly, I am not sure that I will be able to deal with these scented products for much longer.

-My big news from school is that yesterday a fellow Ph.D. student and I rearranged the Ph.D. office so that all six desks are accessible. Prior to our changes only three of the six desks were accessible. Hopefully the other students who use the room, who weren't directly consulted, will find the changes as positive as I do.

-Oh man, I have so much work that I have been avoiding today. I guess I should try to get a little done before I turn in.

-I guess since I mentioned that I was watching the World Series yesterday I might as well mention that the Yankees were victorious. Unfortunately, the portion of the game that I watched wasn't particularly exciting (though once I started watching I couldn't stop until it was over).

A Few Quick Notes 369

-I guess today was a little nicer than I expected it would be, meaning that I don't recall it raining.

-This change in the daylight allocation is really doing me in. It is now bright in them mornings when I get up on the early side of things and dark early in the afternoon. I think if it was up to me I would have kept things as they were before, but I guess the 9-5ers are a slightly more populous group that grad students without many morning commitments.

-All three of us are watching game 6 of the World Series. The funny thing is that while we are doing this we are using at least three computers (Neil and Rebecca are in the living from while I am in my room with my computer).

-A few minutes ago I looked at the grocery store fliers for the upcoming week and was pleased to see that a few of my favourite products will be on sale, notably cheap beef, pineapple, and potatoes.

-My baked fries should be ready momentarily. Much to my chagrin, I ended up throwing the entire bag on the tray.

-The Yankees just brought Rivera in.