And the things in the photograph are:
- One orange lolly-stick, well licked.
- One two-bite brownie, chewed.
- One sippy-cup filled with a mixture of orange juice and cranberry juice.
- One lump of green play-dough.
And I’m not putting any of them down, Dad. You weren’t thinking of taking them, right?
Vivian had a particularly happy morning, as you can see, sharing breakfast with her father and grandfather, and then accompanying us for a little shopping. And, as I suspected her grandfather would do (and what perhaps all grandfathers do), she was plied with sweets. She’s currently sleeping it off in her crib.
In writing news, I’m pleased to report that, next week, I’ll be hosting a panel at Kitchener’s Word on the Street on young adult fiction and the Internet. The official title of the panel discussion is “Teens, Fiction, YouTube and the Internet”. My fellow panelists will be Rebecca Anderson, a new author who has signed a two-book deal with Harper Collins, and veteran science fiction writer James Alan Gardner, who has been on the Internet twelve years longer than I have. Our panel takes place at the south end of Victoria Park in the Beyond the Page Stage at 2:30 on Sunday, September 30, so if you’re in town, come and see us. The event is free.
Thanks to a mistake on an address label, it appears that my replacement power cord for my MacBook (the original’s demise was written about here) is in Kitchener, but the courier doesn’t know where to send it. I phoned in a correction, but they warned me that it would take 24-48 hours to process a correction. So delivery has been put off until Monday or Tuesday. How whacked is that? What’s worse is, when I asked if I could arrange to pick up the package instead, they said the change request would take 24-48 hours to process. Argh!
The Sign Wars
I realize that one shouldn’t base election predictions based on the number of campaign signs they see on various properties, but I do think the prevalence of a particular candidate’s signs does indicate how vigorous the candidate’s campaign team is fighting that election. If that’s the case, then the election story in the cities of Kitchener and Waterloo appears to be the incumbents versus the New Democratics.
In Kitchener-Centre, Liberal John Molloy seems to have marshalled his campaign team to cover much of the riding with his signs. His Conservative opponent, Mike Stanson, doesn’t have as much of a presence, but NDPer Rick Moffat does. Likewise, in neighbouring Kitchener-Waterloo, Conservative Elizabeth Witmer’s blue signs can be seen on many a property. Whereas in the previous two elections she faced a hard fight by Liberal Sean Strickland, the current Liberal candidate does not seem to have made as much of a splash. On the other hand, Catherine Fife’s orange and green signs can be seen in a lot of places, oftentimes on properties neighbouring properties bearing Witmer signs.
A similar pattern occurred in the last two elections in Kitchener Centre, however, with the NDP showing strength in signs, but still finishing in third behind the Liberals and the Conservatives, so take this with a grain of salt, but it is still an interesting picture on how the campaign is being fought.