Exploring Halifax at #OpenCity

Last weekend was the second Open City event, put on by I Love Local (HFX). 147 local businesses, restaurants, shops and venues opened their doors, put on specials, handed out samples, had special take-out menus, and encouraged Haligonians to get out and appreciate their city.

147. 

There was no way we could visit them all (or eat all of the back-door takeout options!), so we came up with a game plan to hit the venues the four of us (my parents, Trevor and I) had at the top of our lists. Out we headed, the four of us plus baby J jammed into one car to avoid having to find not just one but two parking spots downtown, on a Saturday, with such an event happening.

First up was Garrison Brewery, for a taste of their specialty craft beers. I tried the Sugar Moon Maple, which tastes like it sounds - it's kind of like shooting maple syrup and chasing it with beer. In other words, DELICIOUS. Also sampled was the One-Hop IPA, which my mother proclaimed to be delicious. I found it interesting - it bit back a bit! Between us we bought enough beer to warrant a quick trip back to the car to deposit our purchases.

Next up, after the beer, we needed some lunch so we headed next door to the Seaport Farmers' Market. Trevor and I headed for our favourite steamed pork buns, while my parents opted for some (spicy!) samosas and spring rolls.

Then we headed over to Laughing Whale Coffee, where they were offering a free cup of coffee with the purchase of a bag. I had a taste of it, and decided that's the closest I've ever come to thinking I might be able to drink coffee sans milk and sugar. It was nice and nutty, and fairly mild. Delicious, especially with some organic sugar stirred in! J thought the bag of coffee beans would make a good toy.

Our next stops were further along the waterfront, so we headed down the boardwalk. I don't get downtown much, living and working on the other side of the Harbour as I do, and when I do, I always am reminded how much I love our waterfront.

Next up was Bishop's Cellar, where they had samples of Nova 7, a delicious local sparkling wine. My mother rather aptly compared it to eating a gravenstein apple - crisp, sharp on the tongue, sweet and a little bit tart - and 100% delicious. After emptying our glasses, we headed for the store's Nova Scotia section to pick out some bottles to bring home with us. Bishop's Cellar was also celebrating their 10th anniversary and were holding an Instagram contest - post a picture of your favourite bottle for your chance to win it. I thought my entry (left) was the cutest, but it sadly didn't win.

More alcohol meant we needed more food in our bellies, of course, so we headed around the corner to Sugah! for some hand paddled ice cream. Their special was a single scoop of ice cream with two add-ins, so that's what we had. Vanilla ice cream with chocolate-peanut butter fudge and Nova Scotia dried cranberries makes for a delicious summer treat! I did make the mistake of letting J have a tiny taste of ice cream on my spoon and then he wanted MORE MORE MORE - oops, I think I created a baby monster! 

After wandering back along the (increasingly chilly) waterfront to the car, we headed up Morris to Atlantic News. Our goal was to pick up a copy of the Chronicle Herald, the front page of which had coverage of the Halifax Mooseheads' big President Cup win the night before. While we were there we also found a great magazine listing the best iPad apps for kids, and a couple of greeting cards with local art. There was a pianist providing live background music, and J found him fascinating. He kept looking at the pianists hands, then his face, then back to his hands, really studying him as he played. 

Our final stop was Freak Lunchbox, for some bulk candy. For that one day, proceeds from bulk candy sales were donated to support the IWK Foundation. Candy for charity has no calories, right? 

It was a great afternoon spent downtown supporting local businesses and getting some great food and drink! And as the good folks at I Love Local (HFX) pointed out after the event, if you enjoyed that, you don't need an event to support local businesses - you can do it every day!

A Beauty-Blogger Style Post: The Search to Avoid the "Dirty Dozen"

A while ago my mother showed me a list from the David Suzuki Foundation of the 'Dirty Dozen' cosmetic chemicals to avoid. (Cliff notes: it it's made from a petrochemical, releases formaldehyde, has a name you can't pronounce, or is listed on the ingredients as a symbol and number combo, it's probably bad!) This list is admittedly a little scary, and also frustrating, because it can sometimes take a long time to find an eyeshadow palette or a shampoo that really works for you, right? And also, this kind of stuff tends to cost an arm and a leg to buy as well.

The first switch was easy - my mother had already discovered Live Clean, a line of shampoo, conditioner, soap and body wash that meets all of the "free-from" criteria. Their shampoo, conditioner and body wash have all made it into my rotation. They are not that much different price-wise from your average not-basic-brand drugstore purchase (especially when they are on sale!) and they seem to work just as well as something containing sodium-laureth-sulfate or some other unpronounceable chemicals. They also have a line of baby products which I will be using in a few months, and a new line of face care products which I haven't had a chance to try yet.

Another product I stumbled upon almost by accident. After having for a massage at Cascades Day Spa on Valentine's Day with my husband, I used their shower facilities and really liked the body wash they provided (it smelled yummy, like oranges!). I then discovered that they had it for sale at the spa, and brought home a bottle of NBW Marigold Magic body wash. It's a tad on the expensive side but you don't have to use that much. It has lasted me a while and so probably works out not that expensive on a per-wash basis. And - bonus - it's Canadian!

Those two switches were easy. The challenging part for me has been to find cosmetics that are free from the 12 evils. I'm a shimmery eyeshadow devotee, and of course the ones I have found and liked have all had at least one of the bad ingredients. I had also found a mascara I really liked. I wasn't sure if I would ever find a product I actually liked and wanted to use that also met the criteria.

The other day at the drugstore I was waiting for a prescription to be filled, and so was wandering the store. Remembering that my mascara was basically empty, I headed to the makeup aisle to pick up a new one. While browsing the aisle, mascara in hand, to look at all the other pretty things, I spotted a package that simultaneously piqued my interest and also made me say "yeah sure - probably just greenwashing." The product in question? Mascara, with the word "Organic" prominently featured. So I picked up the package to read further, to see if it held up to scrutiny or was just trying to make me pay more for it because it said "organic" on the box.

Turns out - this one actually holds up to scrutiny! The product in question is Physicians Formula Organic Wear mascara. Not only does it come in a pretty package (the cover of the tube is in the shape of a leaf!) it also is free from the long list of bad ingredients that, sure enough, were in the mascara I was going to buy (like about 10 different coal-tar-derived dyes to make that pretty brown-black colour!) Other mascara: synthetic beeswax (what? why?). This one: ACTUAL beeswax! What a novel concept! The only drawback was that it does not come in my usual brown-black, just in "organic black" but hey - I was willing to give it a try.

This one is more expensive than the traditional brands by quite a lot, but miracle or miracles it was on sale for the same price as mascara #1! I bought one tube and got a rain check for a second since thy only had one on the shelf. And when I got it home and tried it, I quite liked it - no clumps, felt good swiping it onto my lashes, and as it turns out the black doesn't look so harsh anyway!

So I am slowly but surely building up my better-for-me beauty arsenal (I also found a lip balm made from all natural ingredients including beeswax that I quite like). Still on the list: toothpaste (I'm picky - it can't taste gross!), deodorant (has to actually work!), and the ever-elusive eye shadow (has to shimmer and stay on!).

Anniversary Dinner at Baton Rouge

This evening Trevor and I went for dinner to celebrate our final "couple anniversary" before getting married next week (or, as Trevor put it, his final anniversary with his soon to be ex-fiancee). We decided to check out the new Baton Rouge downtown. And, inspired by the lovely and talented Kristen Pickett of With Bite (www.withbite.ca), I decided to write about it!

The first this that impressed me about the restaurant was how much of the old building (the Morse's Tea building) they kept and used in the decor. Exposed brick walls and old, rugged beams blend seamlessly with crisp white crown moulding and the signature dark-wood-and-red-leather decor of the chain. Old black and white pictures of Halifax grace the walls.

Also impressive is the fact that a whole page of Nova Scotia wines are highlighted in the menu, as a separate list from the usual California imports and so on. I ordered a glass of the Rose from Domain de Grand Pre - yum! (That's as technical on the wine descriptions as I get...)

I had perused the menu online before heading out, and Trevor knew he wanted to try the ribs prominently and tantalizingly advertised on billboards around the city, so we ordered pretty quickly. We started with the Cheddar Dip, which came with warm tortilla chips, and was pretty much what it sounds like - melted cheese with chips to dip in it. I'm sure it wasn't exactly low-cal, but man was it yummy! I also got an order of grilled calamari, which came in big spirals with half a grilled lemon, tomatoes, capers, and olives (which, yes, I left on the plate).

I had the steak salad, which is meant to come with blue cheese but the waitress very helpfully offered goat cheese as an alternative when I declined the blue. She was also willing to suggest her favourite dressing for the salad. The steak was tasty as were the other toppings - walnuts, sweet grilled zucchini and red peppers, and of course the cheese. The lettuce mix was a little heavy on the white, rib part of the lettuce, but the salad was big enough to discard those pieces and still be filled up.

Trevor wanted chicken + ribs, but wasn't sure whether to go with the breast or the tenders. Again, the waitress was very helpful and showed her knowledge of the menu. She recommended the tenders, with their crunchy tempura-like batter, as a nice contrast to the ribs, whereas the breast comes with the same sauce as the ribs and could be BBQ overload.

I tried one of the ribs, which were so tender they came apart with a fork - and even though I'm not a big fan of BBQ sauce, these, with their in-house sauce, were pretty darn tasty. I also snagged one or two of the accompanying fries, which were hot,fresh, crispy and lightly seasoned - I'm not a huge fry lover, but these were delish!

Our only complaint was that we had to ask three or four times for a refill of our water glasses, while my wine refill came right away!

We decided to forgo dessert in favour of a visit to one of our fave spots, Freak Lunchbox. A light walk up the hill would be good for us, we thought... until it started pouring while we were inside the store!

All in all it was a great first visit to Baton Rouge and a great last anniversary!

Official Volunteer Researcher!

This weekend I had the opportunity to take part in the 15th annual Loon Watch at Kejimkujik National Park. Each year, in June and September, volunteers gather for an afternoon to paddle the lakes of Keji and count the pairs of loons they find, along with any young.

This year my Dad and I drove an hour into the backcountry of the park and paddled on Pebbleloggitch and Beaverskin lakes looking for loons. As expected, we saw none on Pebbleloggitch but once we got to Beaverskin, we hit the jackpot! I snuck down the portage with the binoculars and spotted an adult loon with a large juvenile! We sat and watched them for a while while we ate our lunch, and they put their heads down and had a nap! After a while the adult awoke and called, and suddenly there was a second adult! It must have been around the corner, fishing.

After lunch we climbed into the canoe and tried to get a bit closer to the birds for a better look. Immediately, the adult called to the baby and it scooted closer. The other adult went off to the other side of us, calling and trying to lure us away from its young. We promised we wouldn't get too close, took some pictures and left them alone to go explore the other end of the lake. By the time we returned, they had disappeared, melting into the background at the edge of the lake.

It was a great day, with beautiful skies, calm lakes, and a nice dose of fauna (in addition to the loons, we saw a hawk, a bald eagle, two ducks, several frogs, and a deer!). It's a pretty neat feeling to help out with some of the great research that goes on at the park. (And I got a cool hat that denotes me as an official volunteer researcher!)

Caped Crusader of TV Sports.

Rogers Sportsnet One recently launched as a "national" channel and moved a number of Toronto Blue Jays baseball and Ottawa Senators hockey games to the new channel. The only problem? Currently, the channel is ONLY available on (funnily enough) Rogers Cable. Which is NOT available in Nova Scotia. Which means this is NOT a national channel and I have now lost access to previously watchable Jays and Sens games. I am not impressed. So I started writing:

To Bell TV in their online contact form:

Under "Your question" I asked, "Hello - I am looking for information on when/whether Bell will be carrying Rogers Sportsnet One. Thanks!" and under "Additional Comments" I added "I have heard that only Rogers cable will be carrying Rogers Sportsnet One. Since I live in Nova Scotia and therefore am unable to get Rogers Cable, I would really appreciate it if Bell TV could carry this network so I can watch the Blue Jays and Senators games which will now be unavailable to me. Please let me know any information you may have. Thanks!"

It told me: "Thank you for visiting bell.ca. We have received your request and a customer service representative will respond within the next 2 business days." Then I got an automated email, 36 hours later, saying "AUTOMATED RESPONSE - PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL. Dear Valued Customer, Thank you for visiting the Bell Canada web site, and for your Bell TV inquiry. Please be assured that we have received your request and we strive to respond to all e-mail inquiries within 24-48 business hours. We will respond to your e-mail in priority sequence. (...) Thank you for e-mailing Bell TV. - Electronic Customer Care Centre"

50-some hours after I submitted by letter, I did get a response (not that it really says much): "We thank you for your time to inquire about Bell TV programming, and we are pleased to assist you. We certainly get your point and we truly appreciate your time to check the latest update about the availability of Sportsnet One in Bell TV. Unfortunately, at this time we cannot announce if we will carry the Sportsnet One channel. Rogers Media has exclusive rights to these Blue Jays games so they are not available on channels beyond what Rogers Media provides them on. Please bear with us for the meantime and rest assured that we will do everything in our power to provide the content and value our customers desire. You will be delighted to know that we will continue to make the remaining 21 games available for Sports 1 or 2 theme pack (Rogers Sportsnet) subscribers. When it comes to choosing which sports packages we should offer, Bell TV makes the final decision based on numerous factors including anticipated appeal, cost, bandwidth and whether or not the product compliments current programming. At this time, there are no firm plans to bring Sportsnet One to Bell TV. We assure you that your feedback is noted and has been forwarded to the Marketing Department for further review and consideration. We thank you for your patience and understanding. Thank you for choosing Bell TV as your satellite provider, Ms. Hopper. Have a great day."

I am pleased to report that I am in fact delighted that I will continue to receive the programming I'm paying for! Yay!

Sent to Rogers via customer.service@rci.rogers.com:

"To Whom It May Concern: I am writing to you regarding Rogers' new channel, Sportsnet One. According to your website, Sportsnet One will be a "national sports digital channel." However, I understand that the only way you can currently subscribe to Sportsnet One is if you are a Rogers Cable subscriber. Since Rogers Cable is not available in Nova Scotia (or Alberta, BC, Manitoba, Quebec, PEI or the Territories according to your website) this is FAR from being a national channel. Therefore, I am now unable to watch any of the Toronto Blue Jays games which have now been moved to this exclusive channel, nor will I be able to watch the Ottawa Senators games which have likewise been moved. As a fan of both these teams, even though I already pay for both the regular and high definition feeds of not one but four other Rogers channels, I would have been willing but annoyed to shell out yet more money for another Rogers station - but now I can't even do that. I am sure you are getting many comments in this vein and therefore your customer service reps are likely very busy, but a response and explanation would be greatly appreciated."

To date (60 hours after submitting my letter) I have received no response.

On the Ottawa Senators contact form, under the category Broadcasting, I wrote:

"To Whom It May Concern: I am writing regarding the new Rogers Sportsnet One channel, which I understand will be carrying a number of Ottawa Senators games this season. This channel is apparently currently only available to Rogers cable subscribers - which I am not, nor do I have the option to be as it is not available in Nova Scotia. Therefore I am upset that I will be unable to watch a number of Senators games this season. As a dedicated fan in Nova Scotia it is already hard enough to be a fan - games are not always available in HD even though I pay for the channel and are sometimes blacked out - so this new development only makes it worse. Any explanation you could provide would be appreciated."

It said: "Thank you for your feedback. Your question or feedback was successfully sent to the appropriate department."

UPDATE: If you want attention paid to you, go to Facebook! Today I posted on the Ottawa Senators fan page: "Love my Sens but their customer service sucks... submitted a question on their contact us for a week ago and no reply, not even an automated one... BOO."

A mere two hours later, they replied: "Hi Jennifer, What was your issue? Our "contact us" form doesn't always direct the questions to the right people so too often things get lost in the shuffle. It's something we are looking into fixing going into next season."

I posted in reply that " I submitted a question under the "broadcasting" category regarding coverage of the Sens on Sportsnet One, which I can't access..."

They wrote: "I know some people in that department so I'll talk to them tomorrow and will post my findings here. Did you have anything specific questions in mind?"

So I said: " Just wondering what the Senators have to say about a number of their games being broadcast on Sportsnet One which is only available to Rogers subscribers (seems to only be available in ON and NB) - I live in NS and have no option to subscribe to this channel as Rogers does not offer cable here so therefore will not be able to watch those games." Kj Baker added, "How many games is Rogers sportsnet one holding?"

The Sens replied: "Up to 15 games on Sportsnet One but that's on top of the 40 games that will be shown on Sportsnet East. At the moment this doesn't help out of market fans like Jennifer but it sounds like the wheels are in motion to fix that. Rob Brodie wrote a pretty good article a few weeks ago about the impact of Sportsnet One if you are interested, here's the link..."

I added, "I contacted Bell and they basically told me "no comment" as to whether they would be offering Sportsnet One. Thanks for looking into this for me!" and got a friendly "No problem...hopefully everything works out for you" in reply. Thanks to the anonymous Ottawa Senators facebooker that actually replied to me!

Can I Call Myself a Professional Blogger Now?

My first post on the Halifax Chamber of Commerce's new blog is up! It gives me a chance to write about some more 'serious' stuff - this one's about my vision for the future of transportation in Halifax! Check it out here...

Environmental... Whiner?

I have always been what I would call environmentally conscious - my parents always had a backyard compost heap so food scraps never went in the garbage; we used to pick up garbage in the ditch and have can contests at school; I grew up camping in the backcountry of Kejimkujik National Park, respecting the world around me and learning to "pack out" garbage. Gradually, more and more of the world has joined me in this green craze.

I was the one to push for composting at our office and the one who created PowerPoint presentations to teach people how to sort their waste. I am also the one who will dig through the recycling bin at the office and remove the non-recyclable materials! And when I forgot to take reusable bags with me to the grocery store the other day, I hurried across the parking lot guiltily with my plastic bags of food.

So when other people don't take being green as seriously as I do, I get... annoyed. The part that bugs me the most is that I really feel powerless in a lot of situations to do anything other than gripe.

Take "my" beach. For the last 5 months I have been working on a yearlong project, called Daily Ocean, to take a photograph of the ocean by my house each day. And there is often what is technically garbage on the beach -the usual rope, tires, the odd flip flop or rubber boot that you would expect to come from the ocean especially near an active fishery - but on one particular day the tide must have been just right because the beach was littered with bright green, pink, blue and white... tampon applicators. I mean, GROSS! Who wants to see that on their beautiful beach? And what do people think is going to happen to a PLASTIC applicator when they put it in the toilet?

So that is my gripe for the day. And all I can really do about it is gripe... and blog.