There's a reason why I love this town

Yesterday after work I went to Chapters. I walked thorough the door and the first thing I saw was Joel Plaskett. The actual human. Just walking around with some kid. I've never seen him in Halifax/Dartmouth in a non-performance capacity. It's so cool that he just lives here.

Where the fuck have I been?

I’ve been busy since Christmas and went on hiatus to focus on my “life” instead of sporadic blog posts. In December I decided to plunge head first into chronic debt and I bought a house. Like, an actual house. On land. I own property. It’s pretty insane. I was so absurdly excited about it for about a month. Then the excitement turned into the stark realization that someone who hates housekeeping is probably a bad candidate for homeownership – but it’s too late. Really, though, I fucking love my little house. It’s so bright, and quiet, and lovely. I complain about cleaning it (I swear, the first two weeks I was there it felt like all I did was mop), but I don’t regret my decision at all.  

I'm not actually going to post a picture of my house on the internet. Instead here is a picture of my driveway and lots of snow. 

    

Advent

Day 23

Advent

December 1st is the start of my Christmas. I get out my boxes of Christmas stuff, I put up my (fake) tree, I start to think about - but don't actually do - Christmas cards.

This year, December 1st happens to be the date of the Dartmouth tree lighting as well. It's a large event that is well-attended. I usually just go for the lighting, but there's a whole concert and train rides for the kids and other stuff. I went with Other Auntie for the lighting, and the fireworks. Halimouth loves the fireworks. We will celebrate pretty much anything with fireworks. The Dartmouth tree lighting fireworks are usually very good. Worth standing in the cold for.

My goal is to post something Christmasy every day until the day itself. That's a lot of commitment for me, but I'm hoping I can manage.

Day 1 after the jump.

Oz is finally honouring her promise to visit Nova Scotia. It's her first time east of Ontario (first time that counts, anyway). This past weekend we did some must-see/do Halifax/NS things. Among them: ride the ferry, eat cinnamon rolls from Mary's Bread Basket, visit old and new markets, taste NS wines, see Lunenburg, taste NS vodka, see Peggy's Cove, taste Dee Dee's ice cream. Also, there was tidal bore rafting. And NS beer. And NS produce. Just lots of food, in general.

While in tourist mode, I've been playing with my new unimpressive point-and-shoot camera. It's got lots of impractical features, like fisheye effect, and "toy camera," and weird vivid colour distortion. Have a look.

Houses in Lunenburg, normal setting.

Houses in Lunenburg, vivid setting.

Happy Friday

Fight the power.  Increases, that is.

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The (awesome) inspiration:

Dartmouth Love

My love of Dartmouth is fairly well documented. I saw these at TIBS last weekend and promptly bought a set for myself:

Dartmouth Clothing Co.

I've always had a soft spot for the underdog, and Dartmouth is certainly that. It's on the brink of really "taking off" in terms of development, and the downtown business people are trying to market Dartmouth as a vital urban area. I'm all for that. I'm sure a lot of people don't give downtown Dartmouth a second thought and a public awareness campaign, if you will, is a good idea. The video, however, is disappointing. There's 40 seconds of swirly graphic and five still shots of Dartmouth. It seems to me like a missed opportunity to really show how beautiful downtown Dark Side can be.