Back in the depths of winter the folks at Taylor’s Taters at the [[Charlottetown Farmers’ Market]], the official potato, turnip and carrot supplier to our family, announced to us that this would be their last season at the Market as this was the year to retire and sell the farm.

I reminded [[Oliver]] of this fact this morning at the Market and suggested we do something to mark the occasion. Unfortunately this caused Oliver to panic at the thought that he would never again be able to eat potatoes, turnips or carrots and to salve his distress I suggested we could go and talk to the Taylor’s Taters people and seek recommendations for alternative sources of same.

Much to our collective relief we learned, on doing this, that the retirement has been delayed a year, seed for this years crop has been ordered, and Taylor’s Taters will live to see another year.

Oliver, needless to say, was delighted that he’ll have potatoes, turnips and carrots in his diet through at least 2010.

Confusion has reigned out at the University of PEI Sports Centre for the past month as the general locker rooms have been closed for renovations and smaller team locker rooms temporarily re-purposed for we fitnessing civilians. A situation made somewhat more complicated by the impending switch to a more secure access policy for the entire facility that will involve much more card swiping to gain entry.

Now confusion of this small scale is usually something that can be mitigated by strategic use of signage. And on the card-swiping front there were clear notices posted well in advance all over the place.

As to the locker rooms, well:

Setting aside the fact that the dates have slipped (it’s 5 days after the March 30 reopening date promised), the overlapping mess of signs says, in essence “don’t go here; no, wait, yes go here; no wait, don’t go here.”

Perhaps I quibble about something trivial? But working out, at least for me, is already fraught with enough stress (remember locker combination, avoid accidental penis gazing, remember to drink enough water, don’t die, etc.) that problems left gaping that could easily be solved by better communication are confounding.

I’ve had a GrandCentral account kicking around for a while, and today I checked in and found out that I was eligible for a free migration to Google Voice (think “Gmail, but for telephone calls”). Once of the nice features of Google Voice is its automatic transcription of incoming voicemail messages. To test this out I left myself a message, which it transcribed as:

hi peter it’s peter regarding a calling i would like to get together with you this afternoon to me about the penske file could you give me a call when you get a chance at (785) 756-0000 again your regarding a (785) 756-0000 thanks talk to you soon

Here’s the MP3 they recorded that was used for the transcription. Not a bad job, but certainly not perfect, especially near the end.

Remember [[Cafe Diem]], the summer-only coffee shop on Victoria Row in Charlottetown? Well after its initial multi-year run as a Rodney Jones joint, followed by a summer managed by Mamdouh Elgharib, this summer, sources say, it will be operated by The Murphy Group, another step in their complete assimilation of all Charlottetown eateries.

If you’re confused, remember there’s always the handy Which Murphy is Which? page.

Good news: starting this Saturday, April 4, 2009 there will be regular bus service to the Charlottetown Farmers’ Market. Kudos to Trius Transit and the Market folks for working to make this happen.

The bus — it’s just a re-routing of the regular Route #1 with some additional runs — leaves the Confederation Centre of the Arts every 30 minutes starting at 9:00 a.m. and running to 1:30 p.m. and the trip takes about 15 minutes.

Buses from the Market back downtown leave at 10 and 38 minutes past the hour from 9:10 a.m. to 2:10 p.m.

Buses run up University Avenue to the Atlantic Superstore, making all regular stops, and then down Belvedere Avenue to the Market, turning left into the University of PEI and running around the UPEI access route to the regular UPEI pickup off University Ave., and then continuing to the Charlottetown Mall as usual. On the return run buses do the reverse, circling around the back of UPEI and out by the Market.

Regular fare ($2) and transfer protocols are in force. On Saturday, as usual, you can get automated telephone schedule information about the next bus by dialling 367-3694.

This is a three month trial period so, please, if you’ve any interest in this being a regular option for getting to the Market, show up in force this Saturday and demonstrate that the service is useful. Tell your friends!

If you’re looking for a hearty lunch in Charlottetown today to take the edge off the return of winter, I highly recommend the Chicken-Tomato Soup at [[Leonhard’s]]. It’s served with a slice of olive baguette, and it’s fantastic.

For those of you living in places where “spring” means “balmy breezes wafting over the cherry blossoms,” here is what it means on Prince Edward Island:

At Heathrow Airport last weekend I picked up the April 2009 issue of Emigrate magazine, a magazine targeted at British residents interested in emigration to Australia, New Zealand, the USA or Canada. Prince Edward Island is mentioned a few times in this issue; for example, in the Destination Doctor feature:

As I type I am sitting at a table deep in the bowels of the Robertson Library at the University of PEI. It is snowing outside. I have just finished a toasted bagel with vegetable cream cheese, and beside me sits a piping hot cup of green tea with lemon. In another era this would induce paroxysms of protest from any librarians in the vicinity. But today’s library is different: the library’s Food and Drink/Noise Policy has been updated to allow food and drink — at least food and drink that’s not “smelly or messy” — in most places in the library. Including at this very table.

This is all an outgrowth of the replacement of the Reference Desk with a coffee shop this month. And while said coffee shop serves only much the same generic goo that the other campus food outlets serve, somehow the opportunity to purchase Glosette Raisins to be consumed while reading The Book of Kells seems, if not quite revolutionary, at least a step in the right direction.

As far as I know the Robertson Library’s ban on “prolonged conversations” remains in place, and I skirted up against this rule when my friend John Cousins stopped by my table a minute ago and our conversation came very close to being prolonged. Fortunately I was able to nip things in the bud and John went on his way right on the extended-prolonged conversational border.

At the Fitness Centre this morning the television in front of my exercise bike was running The Today Show with closed captioning turned on and I spotted the followed mistyped transcription:

Administration forces GM CEO Rick Wagoner to design.

Oh it were true.