a peek inside the fishbowl

I don’t do it every night, but from time to time I like to plant a “dream seed” in the girls heads before I kiss them goodnight.

The dream seed gives them something pleasant to think about while they drift off to sleep. The idea here is that if the seed is about a particular topic it might blossom into something more as the night wears on.

Tonight’s was about canoeing. I asked the girls to picture the four of us canoeing along a wide, tranquil lake, with water so perfectly smooth it reflects the blue sky like a mirror. The paddles break the surface as quietly as a slow ticking clock, water striders dance on the surface while silvery fish follow underneath. We pass acres of water lilies, each one with its shining bright face turned up towards the sun. We are approaching a large wooded island which gets larger as we get closer. Here is where we find…

… and that’s where I stopped, so each girl could fill in the rest and let the seed grow into something more.

Sarah started to tell me about a conch shell, but I asked her to wait and tell me about it in the morning.

I like to think of the dream seeds as a kind of kid-friendly meditation, an easy way to relax in bed with happy thoughts.

The answer, apparently, is two.

I received this email from a Fishbowl reader:

“… they’re proposed scrapping the westward portion of route 16, and replacing it with a local route that goes from Brittania to Tunney’s. I am aghast and think it would be a royal pain to have to take two buses downtown – it’s all well when you are on your own and can walk it to the 2 or 85, but if you are with a couple of kids or who knows, this is not going to happen, so a 2 or 3 bus ride to town is your ride – which is quite nutty considering how close we are to downtown.

I think if more people knew about the changes, then OCTranspo would get more feedback telling them to stop that nonsense. I know lots of people from the neighbourhood read your blog, so I thought that might help – especially since I have not seen any info on this on the buses themselves.”

She’s right. Looking at the map of proposed changesit looks like Westboro peeps would have to take a bus to Westboro station and TRANSFER to another bus to get downtown. The number two bus would continue to be a nightmare, despite increased frequency. Here’s all the info on the OcTranspo site.

City of Ottawa needs to swallow some of the costs and make public transit more appealing to a wider group of users: add more buses, plan out some logical routes, and bring in cheaper fares. They need to make public transit sexy and useful, and every single thing they do runs completely in the opposite direction. I am stunned that they’ve been unable to find a solution already. Perhaps this is oversimplying, but why can’t someone just find successful model (SURELY THERE IS SOME FORWARD-THINKING CITY WHO HAS MANAGED TO MAKE IT WORK) and just copy it? It is crazymaking.

I urge you to help spread the word, and most importantly, email your comments about the proposed routes and let OCTranspo know how you feel. Deadline for comments is April 25th.

This is the perfect example of Using the Internet for Good of the Consumer. Oh man I’m excited.

Did you know that the City of Ottawa now posts the results of restaurant food/health inspections ONLINE? Mark just alerted me about it.

This, from the City website:

Eatsafe is a new food safety program that provides easy online access to food inspection information for restaurants, cafeterias and other food establishments in the Ottawa area. The program’s overall goal is to promote food safety and cleanliness in Ottawa’s retail food businesses.

If you want to look up a restaurant, start here.

I’ve been looking at the restaurants in my region of Kitchissippi but it looks like there are more than a few that aren’t available yet.

Read the City’s EatSafe FAQ for more info.

Here’s my question, would you check this website before you go out to eat?

Oh dear. I just found out that one of my favourite places got this write up: “Cleaning required around, under, and behind kitchen equipment, counters, and baseboards.”  (!)