tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22107594790235916082009-02-20T22:25:18.081-05:00A personal blog by Gary Roberts, an ex-pat from Old Blighty now living in Toronto, Ontario.Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-35231392910107742842008-09-26T10:16:00.002-04:002008-09-26T10:24:11.559-04:00

This week I decided to download WordPress. After an initially frustrating database setup, I finally got it up-and-running on my hosting company servers. I'm happy to report everything seems to be running well and that I'm quite impressed with the application. It appears to be a lot more user-friendly than Blogger with lots of templates to choose from, all of which are easy to modify if you have

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-53748441861892660802008-09-07T17:39:00.012-04:002008-09-08T10:01:28.096-04:00

I went to Statlers bar in the gay village Saturday night, to watch my work colleague and friend, Ricky sing. She has a regular gig there and I'd already seen her perform on one occasion, but a few weeks ago I promised another colleague, Mary, I'd go with her and maybe throw some pennies at Ricky while she was onstage. Statlers is a nice little bar and the staff there are friendly and attentive,

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-30000522694924048142008-08-10T11:03:00.007-04:002008-08-10T11:20:43.205-04:00

Okay, it's not quite the famed hillock of lush vegetation that inspired Charles Darwin, but it's the closest thing I have in way of a view from my home office. Given time, I'll eventually get around to cutting away the ivy that's slowly growing across the window in my office upstairs. In the meantime, it does provide me with a somewhat limited view of nature; in this case a beautiful green

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-14493373601610679052008-08-08T08:26:00.001-04:002008-08-08T10:31:16.069-04:00

One of our friends from England didn't believe there were such things as raccoons in Toronto, when she visited us in 2007. When she finally did catch a glimpse of one through the window one dark and rainy night in November, she squealed with delight and (in her excited state) immediately nicknamed them "macaroons".Well, now that summer is here and we're spending a bit of time in the back yard,

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-41597664540117702302008-08-06T17:10:00.005-04:002008-08-06T17:27:12.842-04:00

We had to put our dog, Sara, to sleep yesterday. She had started to lose complete control of her bladder and it had gotten to the stage where she was peeing right in front of us, without any warning she needed to go outside.She was an old dog of 13 years, with arthritis in her joints and a no-nonsense attitude towards other dogs which screamed "leave me the hell alone!". She found it more and

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-69682781003136660652008-06-27T08:23:00.001-04:002008-06-27T09:52:02.405-04:00

Read this drivel:The cuttlefish is a cephalopod which operates with such sophisticated technology that scientists today are struggling to understand just how this creature came to be. This creature is a perfect example of God's magnificent design, demonstrating stealth tactics, among other features, which include not only changing colors, but also texture, to blend in perfectly with its

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-12697672355227470932008-06-19T08:48:00.003-04:002008-06-23T13:40:03.760-04:00

Is it just me, or do other people find it a teeny-weeny bit scary that the Pentagon holds "prayer breakfasts" and invites people like Ken Ham, chief honcho at Answers in Genesis and founder of the Creation Museum, as a guest speaker? Mr. Ham uses his blog to write about his visit to the Pentagon, then segues into a babble about how he doesn't believe in evolution and that life on other planets

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-37098434849927603232008-05-14T22:39:00.002-04:002008-05-14T22:43:04.814-04:00

I don't care if it's raining cats and dogs, don't wear that fake sou'wester ever again!

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-28062791908936978672008-04-28T12:45:00.001-04:002008-04-28T10:52:43.546-04:00

Don't wear your sweater inside-out! I don't know, the lengths you'll go to just to grab people's attention...

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-90552082830247082592008-04-15T19:49:00.002-04:002008-04-22T14:10:20.985-04:00

A detailed look at the Ben Stein movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-37589697019406038182008-04-11T09:03:00.014-04:002008-04-27T20:45:20.950-04:00

The weather this morning was crappy - cold, wet and windy. I took the streetcar in to work and everyone onboard was in a foul mood, including the driver. The car was packed and there was barely enough room for people to get on at each stop. The driver kept asking everyone to keep moving to the back, but he wasn't getting much response because I guess the car was just too full and people couldn't

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-8645187427798214032008-04-09T09:17:00.006-04:002008-05-14T22:46:46.008-04:00

...please don't wear that jacket when you're with me! Someone call the fashion police!

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-28700805827362931762008-04-08T23:25:00.000-04:002008-04-08T23:26:39.132-04:00

So, last Friday we went to Massey Hall to watch Margaret Cho as she visited Toronto on the Canadian leg of her tour, “Beautiful.” The hall was packed with fans, with the gay crowd outnumbering the straights by a decent majority.Opening her show was Liam Sullivan whose character, Kelly, is experiencing YouTube and MySpace fame right now with her song, “Shoes”, which we got to experience first hand

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-42406452875365351302008-04-08T18:33:00.005-04:002008-04-11T12:59:28.717-04:00

I wonder how much this dog would go for, on e-Bay?

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-47651970999508869452008-04-02T08:30:00.001-04:002008-04-04T10:55:19.478-04:00

If you've read some of the earlier posts in this blog, you may by now have realised that we're big animal lovers and that we have a few pets in our household; two cats and a dog, to be precise. We adopted all our pets from the humane societies in Ottawa and Toronto. In April 2006 we adopted a 19-year-old Beagle/Basset Hound mix named Lucky, whose previous owner had passed away after looking after

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-40592750458249568132008-03-25T22:08:00.006-04:002008-04-04T10:57:55.552-04:00

We moved into an old Victorian row house in September, 2007, having lived in a loft condo since moving to Toronto in 2004. The loft experience was great and we made lots of good friends in what was, to us, a new city. Still, we missed the floorspace and instant access to the outside that a house provides, so we took a plunge into the market to see what was available and eventually bought the home

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-47400822667873468422008-03-25T19:46:00.002-04:002008-03-25T20:01:56.937-04:00

I was waiting for a streetcar this morning, composing myself for my second day back at the office after the Easter weekend, when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. A guy on a bicycle had stopped at a red light, getting ready to set off once it turned green. I was still groggy from sleep, so at first I wasn't quite certain what I was seeing--but sure enough, there was a raccoon on his

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-51674434525666735882008-03-16T17:45:00.006-04:002008-03-19T20:07:36.552-04:00

We got Keaton from the Toronto Humane Society in November, 2007 - not long after my cat Milo died. He's a grey cat with lots of personality, who follows us from room to room. A regular lap cat, he likes nothing better than collapsing on me in the evening as I'm couch potatoing. He can also be found napping on the bed especially if there's sunlight streaming in, which is how I found him today.If

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-39755515764272471192008-03-16T15:14:00.010-04:002008-04-04T10:59:37.092-04:00

Beautiful day today. The sun was shining through the windows with a suggestion that spring was just around the corner. I'm so looking forward to relaxing on a terrace at our local pub once the nice weather gets here. We were in our local a few weeks ago on a Saturday afternoon, sat next to a couple who were playing Scrabble on a small travel version of the board game. They looked so absorbed in

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-39992229881666438432008-03-11T14:59:00.017-04:002008-04-04T11:01:09.870-04:00

March 9, 2008 was a milestone birthday for El Franco. It was 40 years ago to the day that he sprang forth from his mother's loins to tell the citizens of the world how they should act, dress, and wear their hair. To help celebrate his birthday, his long time friend Melanie visited us from Ottawa for the weekend. She's a great girl, although she has a tendency to exhibit sociopathic behaviour but

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-74108470407299138622008-03-06T19:58:00.018-05:002008-03-07T09:52:59.633-05:00

"Now you've created a blog," a colleague of mine kindly reminded me today "you need to start adding to it." Sounds like good advice, but I've discovered it's harder than I thought. At times, an idea for a story will occur to me and I'll make a mental note of it, so as to revisit the potential press-stopper later in the day. Well guess what? Those little notes in my mind seem to be losing their

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-58642207088033333372008-02-24T17:23:00.012-05:002008-02-24T18:13:57.988-05:00

I walked along Queen West today, past the scene of the six alarm fire between Spadina and Bathurst. There were fire crews and police in abundance and the remains of some of the buildings were still smouldering, which was hard to believe given that the fire broke out in the early hours of Wednesday morning and it was now Sunday. That whole section of the street has been cordoned off to traffic and

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2210759479023591608.post-33156935141748129242007-11-05T18:29:00.002-05:002008-04-04T11:02:45.996-04:00

October 26, 2007 was the day I had to put my cat, Milo, to sleep. That was hard, one of the hardest things I've ever done. Milo was my little buddy who'd been with me since I arrived in Canada in 1999. He was an orange and white cat who grew from a little ball of fur to a whopping 19 lbs - hard to imagine I could fit him into the palm of my hand when I first got him.Milo developed cancer of the

Gary Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00766901576391394346noreply@blogger.com1