Birthday Bonanza!

This week is filled with birthdays! Happy Birthday to:

Carla Raes - July 22
Chris Parr - July 23
Jim VanHorne - July 24
Chris Mortensen - July 25
Bob Smith - July 26
Scott Drennan - July 27

And finally, my nephew Jesse is turning ONE on July 30. I can't believe a whole year has passed since he was born.

The Lake, The Lakehouse and the Pool

Last weekend, I headed down to my parents on Thursday night with Jo-Anne & Jesse. It was nice to sit out on the deck and enjoy the quiet stillness of the country. I loved it! And it was nice to just sit and talk and not have somewhere we needed to go. On Friday morning, Jo-Anne & I picked up Abby & Josh and headed to the river for a picnic.

It was really nice by the water and the kids really enjoyed counting the seagulls and watching the boats go by. When we were done, we stopped by Grammie's for a few minutes and headed on to Sarnia to the animal farm. Always a big hit...we toured the various birds, bunnies, donkeys, etc. It was REALLY hot that day so soon it was time to hit the beach. It was a beautiful day and I love spending time with the kids, so it was great. We got back in to Petrolia just in time for swimming lessons. I was glad I got to see them in the pool for a bit...very cute.

Since Nick was in Germany, I stayed at Jo-Anne's that night. I'm glad I did because Jesse was up with a fever. Poor little guy...I sat and rocked him while Jo-Anne was on the phone with telehealth. I realized the only songs I know all the words to were Simon & Garfunkel, Beatles, Carpenters, etc. but he seemed to really enjoy them! cool. The next day he was still a bit off but not as feverish.

Sunday I spent at Char's pool. It was so hot, it was nice to get cooled off. In the evening we went to see The Lakehouse with Sandra Bullock & Keanu Reeves. http://thelakehousemovie.warnerbros.com/ I wasn't quite sure what to expect but I ended up really liking it. Definitely worth checking out.

On Monday I had lunch with Richard. We used to work together until a couple of months ago. It was great to catch up and just laugh. He always makes me laugh. Incidentally, we met at this awesome little Italian place. I fell in love with it! Food and drinks both excellent! http://www.coppadigelato.com/v2/ In fact, I met Marty there the next morning for coffee. It's really close to work, so it works well. And the coffee is mmmmmgood!

The times, they are a-changin'...

I thought I'd post an update on here so those of you that heard about CHUM's restructuring and sale, can see how this has affected me.

On Wednesday, it was announced that as of January 2007, our control room will be run by an "overdrive" system. Although I'm still discovering what this means, basically all of the positions formerly held by humans, will be done by a machine. This resulted in the layoff notice of 40 positions in our newsroom, including camera, audio, lighting, floor director, PA, director, etc.

Wow, I thought last June was bad when our noon news was cancelled and 13 people lost their jobs. This is devastating. Although my position was not eliminated, it is still very upsetting to realize I will not be working with these 40 people anymore. After working 5 days a week for 7 years with these people, you establish relationships and friendships. The announcement definitely signaled the end of an era.

On top of the announcement of the restructuring, it was also revealed on Wednesday, that CHUM was bought by Bell Mediaglobe. It is very likely that they will, in turn, sell us again. What this means to the rest of the employees, I don't know. However, it has me re-thinking my career-path. Television broadcasting as I've known it for the past 7 years is changing.

It was very sad when I saw a story on CBC about some of the CHUM stations out west that eliminated positions, effective immediately. There were cameramen who had worked there for 30+ years, and they were showing them unloading their truck and handing over their keys. What a devastating blow. I understand that business is business and if you can run your company more efficiently, then that is, of course, what you should do. However, the human element of this really sucks. Kim, my friend from college, worked for the Barrie station and was laid off on Wednesday. Having just had a baby last year, I'm sure she is shocked and lost as to what to do next.

The silver lining for my co-workers is that they still have 6 months as employees to figure out what their next move is. However, it will not be pleasant during those months, I'm sure. Yuck. Hopefully my next post is a little more upbeat. :(

Canada Day 2006

Catching Up

Hmmm, what to post? So much has been happening lately that I say "ooh, I'll put that on my blog" and then I never get around to it. Well, I have a few minutes so I thought I'd post what's been going on.

Last weekend was Canada Day. I will, eventually, get some photos on here, but for now... text only! It was a fun day. My friend Sarah came from Toronto around noon and we headed out for lunch at TJ Baxters patio. The patio itself was nice and it was a gorgeous day, but the food was not the greatest. Just a little tip for you! And their drinks seem watered down. A little disappointing. However, I had been telling her about my new favourite place, http://www.marbleslab.com/, so we decided to head there for dessert. If you like ice cream (and I LOVE it) you'll love this place. You get to choose the flavour of ice cream you want and then choose "mixins" which include everything from crushed up Skor bar to fresh strawberries! Then they mix it all together on a "marble slab" and put it in your cone. It is AWESOME and the best part (or worst part...depends on how you look at it) is that it's just steps from my house! I already have a frequent buyer card with several stamps. :)

Anyway, Sarah & I headed back to my place and finished off some last minute party preps. Before long people started arriving. Although it wasn't the blow-out that last year was, it was a good time. Good food, great friends and an awesome holiday.

Unfortunately the weather was a little "iffy" when it came to the fireworks. We started walking down to the park and it started to rain. We contemplated turning around, but decided to continue on. We sat for about half an hour waiting for the wonderful display to light up the sky...but nothing happened. Well, nothing but the drunk teenagers beside us shooting roman candles out of their hands. Geesh. Apparently they had postponed the fireworks due to the weather. Bummer.

On Sunday, Char & I were planning to head to the drive-in. However, when I checked the website, it was $13 for FOUR movies. What? Who sits through 4 movies? The last one didn't even start until 4:10am!! Craziness. Anyway, we decided that since we only wanted to see the first one, we'd wait and go on a Tuesday when it's $5.00 (and it's a good job we didn't as it poured rain) We did watch Firewall with Harrison Ford. I liked it...very "Harrison Ford-ish" but I enjoy that.
Monday was planned as "Beach Day" We headed out for Port Bruce...however after taking a few wrong turns (oops, need to pay attention instead of talking!!) we ended up in Port Stanley. It was kind of overcast and ended up getting quite cool...so unfortunately, I didn't get the tan I had wanted. :)