I have a pretty cool job. Despite having every travel clinche possible happen while traveling this week, this week’s sojourn to Granby, Quebec had some cool moments. For both of you who regularly read this, I hinted at Zoo pics and the good folks at Zoo de Granby were happy to oblige with two trips over to their great space for some fun, and a sneak peek at their latest exhibit. Those who hate animal pictures, should probably avert their eyes at this point, but this is how we were greeted last monday evening:



And now the fun stuff

There, wanted to see I could spell it without looking. The marketing group I’m with took a break from discussions and whatnot for an en mass tour of the aforementioned village.

It is a recreated 19th century farm village halfway between Montreal and Quebec City. Our hosts from the Zoo de Granby arranged for a very nice tour, which led to informal chats prior to dinner.

For dinner, it was culture shock for everybody except the french canadians at the table. The Village put on what they referred to as an Sugar Shack meal, meaning it was similar into scope to what folks ate then before then went to work, or what us marketers would eat before descending into an international food coma.

Sitting with folks from Germany, Austria and exotic Philadelphia, we watched as it kept coming: Crouton, Bread made on the premises, pork and white bean soup, ham, sausage, egg, potatoes, and syrup. Vindication for Buddy the Elf as syrup is indeed a major food group.

It was pretty funny given the reactions and the curiousity from the Europeans, who made me laugh with their assessments of the Canadian beer being offered. You can imagine trying to explain Philly Cheesesteak or our Wings to them.

Properly toured and fed, we were sent back on our bus for the ride back only to have to loop around for our driver to recover his lost coat, which doubled the length of the journey back to Granby.

He reappeared with the jacket and was greeted by some sarcastic cheers.

Sarcasm apparently is universal.

3 airports, 2 countries, what could go wrong?

Monday's Odyssey. I knew my gates, studied up to know protocol and in the words of one of my favorite bloggers “tossed out the water, took off my shoes, put the laptop in its own bin and hurried the fuck up.”

I booked my stuff through Orbitz, so naturally the United Airlines check in machine had no idea, but that was quickly rectified. I got onto the plane in Buffalo. It was operated by Mesa Airlines and was old enough that I expect Wrongway Feldman was at the controls.

I struck up a conversation with a Buffalo Expat who was on the way to his retirement home in Maui. I can’t help but wonder if he got to his destination before I got to mine.

Being almost as smart as I think I am, I went on Orbitz and got gate information as there was about forty minutes from I landed in DC and the next Spirit of St. Louis would take me the rest of the way to Montreal. If you have ever been to Dulles Airport in DC, c and d are good letters to have near one another. What Orbitz doesn’t tell you is that flight updates they give you sometimes hit your phone when you cannot use it, as what happened today.

Bastards made my gate change, sending me from C to A, which requires a train, a stairmaster, and considerable respiratory skills to get done in short order. Flight was scheduled to leave at 12:12 and I arrived at 12:05, (this is where more frequent travelers laugh at me.) Because we were waiting on a few folks, the plane sat…and sat as they won’t leave without you. After 20 minutes, they did (so I can say screw you frequent traveler, shit do happen).

And we were off, on an even older plane that before, which a flight crew of one, she looked like a combination of Blythe Danner (a good thing) and Witchypoo from H.R. Pufenstuf.

Flight was fairly straightforward from there, but flying the planes out of my high school history book somehow drained the life from my cell phone so, if I was a little abrupt, I do apologize.

Made it to the hotel which despite some skilled photoshopping to make it look Chalet-like is on the Granby equivalent of Niagara Falls Blvd.

Got my first look at the Zoo de Granby this evening and it is a sight. I’m looking forward to seeing the full thing on Wednesday night, but they have some neat toys here, Ostrichs, I tell ya.

And the initial ice breaker supplied with me with personal favorite: Sleeman’s Ale! Good Zoo, good Zoo.

And if it warms up, I’m so hitting the waterpark.

Good Canada

The ex is out of town so I'm running the show domestically till Sunday, which is all well and good, been there done that. The only real wildcard is that the Zoo holds one of its bigger fundraisers of the year, so I fan out some help to make sure the kids all get to where they need to be and whatnot.

I'm not a big fan of traveling for work, but my boss would like me to journey to Granby, Quebec for a conference on Zoo marketing. That is great, I love that I have a boss who places value to my work and wants me to grow and succeed. That is a nice feeling.

Except I don't want to go particularly. If it was a month later, I could even overlook the crappy per diems rates, but next week just blows and this week isn't finishing strong.

My younger daughter is down with what is most likely mono, but a test came back negative so I'm gonna go all Aurora Greenway on the pediatrician's office so she gets relief tomorrow instead of next Tuesday. So, she is bummed about missing her jr. prom.

I'm just tired of giving the same medical report to the grandparents, the partner, ex's travelin companion, so everybody knows the same thing.

Oy, so there is that.

Number one son is making his debut as Gaston in the school production of Beauty and the Beast, which I'm sure will be pretty awful as a whole, but he'll be great, and I'll be in Quebec (God apparently as a sense of humor).

My Dad volunteers in a couple of labs lending his computer expertise to some folks at Roswell, which is a good thing because he is also dueling with redolent lymphoma. We've been told a handful of times that he has it beat, yet it has reappeared again. I went with him last week and told his doc that if he says nothing to worry about, there is a chance we'll be fighting.

So, Dad goes back for further testing on Tuesday while I am in Quebec.

Elsewhere in my humble employer, per diem is a laughable $20 a day. I suppose it is possible in most instances, but to truly do so, you have to do much declining of super-sizing. I pointed out that this is worse in Canada with the crappy US dollar and the added fun of the GST to our CFO who thought she was hilarious with McDonalds jokes.

Yeah, a little stress.

The flight arrangements on Monday have me going to DC then to Montreal (to save money), with about 40 minutes between flights, that will be close.

Ah, but there might be a few Sleemans Ales to be had so there might be an end to the stress.

I learned some important things: Lamaze is crap and Petocin doesn't speed your contractions, it makes labor one big long spouse's hand-crushing contraction.

My eldest arrived on June 2, 1991 after 23 hours of "sheer bliss." I think there is a file on my former spouse and me because the experience really molded us for when we returned for the other two kids.

But despite it all, she arrived quite nicely.



We were feeling pretty good about a year after. She's continued to age quite nicely. I can't do that beard anymore without there being "Santa-like" connotations.

Seems to have a sprung a leak again...

After awhile, you just got to say the hell with it and go. I stopped in Target and while I was finishing my transaction, the downpour started.

Yeah, I jumped in the puddle right by the sidewalk.

On the way to buy train tickets for my daughter's birthday, nothing like being reminded that your eldest is turning 20 to remind you of the passages of time. The big occasion is next week, but she and a friend wanted to visit a friend of theirs in Montreal. So, the former spouse and I, in keeping with our reputation of as cool parents, sported her to passage to quebec.

At some point, I'll have to find one of the pictures from that merry day. It's funny as tonight's dinner is already forgotten, but I can tell you every little detail from that day.

Hell, there is probably still a file on us at Sisters

I love the idea of the water taxi on Buffalo's waterfront. I think going from the wharf to Dug's Dive via the taxi is a great idea. It is reasonably priced and all that, but somebody needed to rethink the press release as the noon news quoted it as saying you can take the Water Taxi from the wharf over to Templeton Landing. That isn't exactly a journey that is harsh on the footwear as that might be faster to walk (they are pretty close when traveling by land). (Psst, more beach type stuff would help too)

45-50 and rain can actually make 25 and snow seem okay.

As a former resident of the area now covered by the NY #26, I cannot wait for this election to be over. It is a huge amount of money being spent by three campaigns and as many political action committees and all the voters in the #26 know is that each candidate is in favor of winning and against losing. It seems like every television commercial break features ads from at least two of the three candidates. While I'm all for our leaders talking to us, none of these candidates are actually saying anything.

Remember last week when it was sunny, and just right on the temp scale? That wasn't a dream right?

Other annoying advertising sticking in my craw at the moment include the radio spots for actor Al Pacino's upcoming appearance at the Seneca Casino. I'm sure he is a fascinating dude to just get talking but whoever wrote the script for the radio ad that reduced his last name to sound effect status. You hear the announcer scream "Pacino!" and I'm half tempted to duck to avoid some imaginary object richocheting off a nearby surface.

"PA-CINO!"

Made you blink.

It's been a busy week. Here's what is mulling around in my brainpan after our first week of spring.

There are a lot of folks in a dither about the "Buffalo: For Real" slogan. I am not one of those guys. I don't dither. We have been searching for the "big thing" forever to turn the region around and that is plenty silly, and the same goes for campaigns of any kind. Any promo campaign needs a bunch of components. This is just a step. Much like people are reluctant to scroll down a web page or click a second time, it is just a way of showing off some nice photos. It's a slogan and the world will revolve at the same pace regardless of how many car chases make what was probably the first of many youtube videos. Remember "Talkin Proud"? Well, the milk still went on your cereal the same way then too. Perceptions and realities shift at a snail's pace and to expect one tag line to do alter that is silly. so the complainers, whiners (and folks who have waaaaay too much time on their hands on the forums on media sites) should chill. It's a tag line not a miracle cure.

That said, this is pretty funny.



The Sabres are raising prices and that has some of the folks still living their moms' basements upside. It is a buck a game on average, folks, settle down. Were you going to go anyway?

I'm getting a kick out of the people and firms who represent themselves as social media consultants. Sure there are things I would like to do to my company's web pages and other things we can add to the facebook page, but in this age, when the internet has made people even lazier, if you are going to tell me what is wrong with my corporate facebook page perhaps, you should be looking at it. Doofus assessed my social media presence on the basis of an abandoned group and the 200 folks who are still there. Yeah, there is a consultant I'll bring in, chucklehead.

Has there been a more poorly run matching set of campaigns than what is happening in the New York 26th election? Everybody is so poorly representing themselves and flinging mud at each other, you have no idea what anybody actually stands for. If I could enact one election law for advertising, it would be for a mandate of "what would you do?" if you got the job.

Long Day on Wednesday and a couple of colleagues stopped for a chat at the end of the day

Now that the lack of winter is bringing people out a little more I've been noticing a few things in my travels:

Everybody crams into the first driveway going into Wegmans, not sure why. Watch, next time you headed to Weggies, most everybody will head for that first way in.

Nobody waits for a parallel parker to finish his or her attempt. More and more, people will pull into the other lane and into oncoming traffic instead of waiting a couple moments. Are we all in that much of a hurry? None of us are that important, me thinks.

I've been moonlighting at the Arena for some of the events down there (for the unitiated) and getting to be a part of the goings on on the Easter Sunday game was a blast until the Sabres managed to lose the darn thing. It was a kick going past a bunch of friendly tailgate parties, even getting a cheer for my red usher coat, only to have the home team blow the game and mess up my arrival time for Easter dinner at my Mom's. With my luck, my next chance at some extra income will be the Backstreet Boys show in June.

Ventured down to marina to get a taste of faux spring yesterday in the company of number one son. It was nice to see the Hatch getting ready, and some small signs of life, even better still to see the lake moving again. The Marina is one of my favorite spots and to see it when the water is still is jarring. Maybe we have FINALLY crossed beyond into something beyond winter.

I'm recultivating my passion for dives for food as well as good drinks. I met a good friend, she turned me onto Boomerrangs, and we went over to Maggies for fish frys the other night and they were awesome and good, and cheap. I like an honest meal like that. I came back feeling full and happy, we capped off at the Pink before the young bucks came in.

The lineup for the Waterfront concerts has been great so far, so I have high hopes for summer, having already bought tickets for Dark Star Orchestra, Elvis Costello and Great Big Sea. I like Tragically Hip, but I think I'll listen to them from outside the fence.

Buried another uncle in the days leading up to easter and when that type of gathering happens as often as it seemingly has, you take levity whereever you can find it. The good folks at Durham Memorial have a repaste after services, but it is a full on old school fry up. On the way into the room, an aunt remarked about the scents coming from the kitchen "bet there ain't a chicken within 4 miles of this place still moving."

And it was pretty good.