Edmontonians Sizzling 20 Under Thirty

Last Thursday I was one of twenty under-30s who received recognition by Edmontonians magazine at its 10th annual reception. I was very lucky to be surrounded by six of the “Sizzlers” in my life: my husband, Doug, and five of my good friends. Several of them are movers and shakers in their own right, as writers, writers/artists, and web designers/social media gurus.

L-R: Erinne Sevigny, me, Doug, Ash Dryburgh, Dana DiTomaso, Gayle Lee, Caitlin Crawshaw

 

The Sizzlers issue is now available around Edmonton and for free download. Click here to read about the following young entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and creative professionals:
  • Keltie Brown, General Manager of Workshop West Theatre
  • Sheldon Casavant, Magician
  • Krista (Chase) Chileshe, account manager at HSBC
  • Kyle Ferbey, Director of CDI College
  • Jacqueline Greenly, Anchor at Shaw Television
  • Dr. Jan Kowalczewski, Chief Tech Officer at Angeltear Solutions Inc.
  • Patrick Lundeen, Artistic Director of Avenue Theatre
  • Margeaux Morin, Professional Dancer/Choreographer
  • Celine Nolette, Owner of Creative Coco’Nuts
  • Keenan Pascal, Owner of Ladaut Renovations
  • Kimberley Poong, Care Manager at AB Health Services
  • Joel Reboh, Investment Advisor for TD Waterhouse
  • Lauren Ritchie, Principal of RISE Productions
  • Trevor Ross, President of Grasschopper Landscaping Ltd.
  • Dr. Abdullah Saleh, Founder/Manager of ICChange
  • Stephanie Szakacs, General Manager of Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market
  • Erica Viegas, Singer/Songwriter
  • Michael Wheeler, Operations Manager and Owner of Canadian Brewhouse
  • Graham Wood, Owner of Titan Alarm

Beautiful British Columbia (Part II)

From our B&B's porch in Valemount after a day of rain.

 

Vancouver on a perfect summer day

 

Downtown Vancouver as seen from the Seawall

 

The view from our tent on Salt Spring Island

 

Doug getting ready to snorkel off Salt Spring Island

 

We found a new friend on the hiking trail...

 

Survival of the “Feetest” in Toronto

On a recent trip to Toronto I was able to get together with a good friend from my undergrad years at McGill University, Katie Reed. We met at her shop, Sole Survivor, in Kensington Market.

Katie, who is 28 years old, has owned and operated this cobbling business for two years. As a young woman, she bucks the cobbler stereotype (in fact, she is the only female cobbler in the Greater Toronto Area). After a B.A. from McGill and teaching jobs in Japan, it certainly wasn’t a career path her friends imagined for her. But like all her undertakings, she has thrown herself into it completely and made it a success.
It has required a lot of hard work and determination. Just finding someone in the GTA to apprentice her was a seemingly insurmountable challenge: she was turned away by all but one of the working cobblers in the region. Now that she is experienced and established in this trade, she is taking on an apprentice of her own (another woman) to pass along her knowledge.
Katie is keeping our favourite shoes in tip-top shape (including finance ministers at budget time!), which can save us precious pennies. She is also keeping many out of landfills, a great way to lessen our footprint (if you’ll pardon the pun).
For more information on her and how she got into cobbling, check out these articles:

Katie also has a blog for here: http://solesurvivorcobbler.blogspot.com/.

Beautiful British Columbia (and Washington State)!

Some shots from a recent road trip from Edmonton, Alberta through to BC and WA (and back):

Salt Spring has a vibrant artist community – and many of their pieces are out for public enjoyment.

Salt Spring Air seemed to have a thriving business: saw three of their Beavers take off in quick succession while enjoying an ice cream cone one afternoon.

After a night camping by the ocean at Ruckle Provincial Park, we enjoyed driving from winery to bakery to cheese shop. Above is the rear view of the Salt Spring Winery where we ate our lunch while sipping a glass of their lovely Pinot Noir (and got a bottle of their Blackberry Port to go!).

After a couple of days in Victoria staying at the English Inn while visiting with family, we boarded a ferry in Sidney bound for Anacortes, WA. We had to stop for a bit to let a pod of orcas go by!
We found this sign in Burlington, WA right next to a church in a building that looks like Noah’s Arc. Religulous? I think so.

From there we drove east to North Cascades National Park, stopping for a permit at the park office. Then we did the 30 min hike through temperate rainforest to Thunder camp site.

In the middle of mountains and under the canopy of trees, darkness fell fast. I got a fire going and whittled a marshmallow stick while Doug got dinner made and rigged up the backpack so that we could string it up the tree when we went to bed. It is bear country, after all!

Our dessert that night was an amazing slice of home-made blackberry pie!

Tablets That Pass the Test

There are so many tablets on the market that it can be difficult trying to decide which one to buy. Here, guest blogger and tech-toy junky Doug Pagnutti gives his take on which pass the test for the average consumer:

My favourite one so far is the Asus 10″ Transformer. The tablet itself is pretty much like all the other Android honeycomb tablets but the keyboard that comes with it is genius. Not only does it provide a few USB ports and an SD Card reader (perfect for getting pictures from cameras) but it has a built-in battery so you can double the battery life on the road. Basically you get a netbook where the screen detaches and becomes a tablet.

All the other tablets at the moment seem pretty uninspiring. The iPad and iPad2 are probably the best for ease-of-use but the fact you can’t view flash sites, as well as the proprietary ports make it less useful. The slew of android tablets are all pretty much the same although prices seem to be going down quickly. Definitely get one that runs honeycomb (3.X) because Android 2.X doesn’t really work for tablets. The only other 10″ of note is the HP TouchPad that just came out. Apparently the software is great (it’s really made by Palm, which HP bought) but the hardware is already out of date (HP should only make printers).

Personally I’m holding out for a good 7″ tablet with usb ports and there’s a good chance the Acer A100 will fit the bill. Amazon is planning to come out with a bunch of tablets this year too but it’s hard to guess what they’ll be like. The one I was really hoping for was the Asus Memo but they just announced it would be “indefinitely delayed”.

I should also say that if you’re looking for something to read e-books, you’re much better off buying an e-reader. The screens don’t hurt your eyes, they’re much much lighter (easier to hold for extended periods) and the batteries last months instead of hours.

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