A Few Quick Notes 541

-The weather has really been yo-yoing for the past few days. On Sunday I woke up to sun and blue skies only to find that within an hour the skies had turned so grey that it seemed like the sun was about to set. Only minutes later I was in the midst of an intense downpour and thunder and lightening store. After the sky cleared we had another such transition at about 2:00 PM. My recollection is that yesterday was also intermittently bright and dark while today, at least so far, seems to be a beautiful, if cool, day. Of course, rain seems to be in today's forecast so who knows how things will actually turnout as the day moves forward.

-Fortunately yesterday evening turned out to be quite pleasant, even if the skies were a little grey. Jeannette and I decided to go for an evening stroll and, somewhat unintentionally, ended up visiting Acadia University's botanical garden. Though we didn't take as much time to visit the gardens as we could have, it was nonetheless a very enjoyable visit. I am sure we will be heading back throughout the summer.

-I should be paying more attention to some of the legislation that has recently been introduced, or that is about to be introduced, by the Harper government. Some of these bills, if enacted, could really change the way things work in Canada and, sadly, I get the sense that they are being rushed through without too much consideration of their potential impact.

Anyway, not that my opinion counts for much, I think that the Senate reform attempts are likely to be particularly important and could really change some of the central institutions of government. While I am not so much of a fan of the current structure of the Senate to say that we should never consider changing it, I do think that any changes should be discussed openly and widely before they are implemented. Currently it seems that the plan is to implement the changes without really having much of a national discussion about what impact these changes might have or whether or not it is even constitutional for the federal government to unilaterally make such changes to the constitution and the functioning of a powerful (or potentially powerful) institution.

I really should probably motivate myself to write a letter to Mr. Harper and my local MP (Mr. Harris), but for now this will have to do.

-Now that I am about 12 days removed from my surgery I have enough energy and have recovered enough that I can get back to work. I guess this means that I should probably stop blogging for the time being and actually get back to work.

A Few Quick Notes 388

-Today, unlike much of the week up to today, actually felt a little bit like Winter. Not only has the temperature been below freezing for much of the day, but we also had a little snow (though not as much as other parts of the Maritimes). As much as I enjoyed yesterday's spring-like weather, I am also enjoying the slightly more wintery feel of today.

-Oh man, what a week for domestic achievements.

On Tuesday I did some grocery shopping, though maybe not as much as I should have.

On Wednesday I baked bread and washed a few loads of laundry.

Yesterday I did the normal dinner stuff, but nothing particularly fancy (though we did do some late-night grocery shopping).

Today I went shopping grocery shopping again and baked a cake (dinner prep will start shortly).

The trend should even continue into tomorrow as I plan on doing some cleaning and preparing a turkey.

-Yesterday, as part of my TAship I had the pleasure of assisting in the invigilation of an exam. It was actually pretty fun just to stand up front and watch people as they wrote their exams. One of the aspects of the experience that I enjoyed the most was seeing almost everyone's head be tilted in the same direction (down and towards their writing space). Those that did not fit this model really stood out (these tended mostly to be left-handers in right-handed desks as opposed to cheaters).

-It seems that Elizabeth Marshall has been been appointed to the Canadian Senate to fill the vacant Newfoundland seat.

-Today I decided to have pancake mix pancakes for breakfast. I guess I was interested in comparing the ease and quality against my Batter Blaster experience of last December. Sadly, the Batter Blaster really didn't fare well against the batter mix. What I did learn is that pancakes from the mix are really straightforward and probably something that I should consider making for myself on a more regular basis.

-I went on a bit of a non-alcoholic beer binge last night. I think that over the course of about 3 hours I had almost half a dozen cans of the potent brew.

-Today, in the Globe and Mail movie reviews I came across the name of one of my sister's friends (the movie in question is Grown Up Movie Star). This was kind of funny as I don't think that I would have imagined such an experience when I first met this person as a 5 year-old. I guess if this movie makes it to theaters in Halifax we will have to make an effort to go see it.

-Don't forget to tune into the upcoming blog-off, it should be an exciting race.