The plan was that we would all “dip our feet” in the Mediterranean. When you mix hot two year old boys and oceans, things rarely go according to plan.

Here’s proof that we actually went to Bilbao (rather than going to, say, Nail Pond and pretending):

I especially like the fact that there’s another couple posing for an unseen photographer stage-right. This is the first photograph I’ve seen of myself since I lost 40 pounds; I now understand why people think I’m emaciated — my clothes are hanging off me like drying laundry.

Thanks to the wonders of Apple’s iPhoto, here’s a shot of all 228 photos we took during our vacation to Spain earlier in May:

Here is my favourite discovery of our trip to Barcelona, found by chance near Playa Catalunya one night walking to the subway after eating a very, very good meal of Mexican food at a restaurant called Mexi-Cal.

It’s the Oliver Detective Agency.

On the road west from the ocean into the hills of the Costa Brava. European road signage is so wonderful.

A billboard in Bilbao, off Calle Ercilla:

On a streetcorner near La Sagranda in Barcelona, the street-level retail spaces have been filled with a McDonalds, a Starbucks and a pizza chain. The tenants above obviously disapprove of the change.

I’ve had difficulty find a translation for the protest banners, which I presume are in Catalan. Any Catalan-speakers in the audience?

My parents and my brother Mike live approximately 20 minutes from each other, in and around the city of Burlington, Ontario. I asked my mother yesterday if she ever ran into Mike at the grocery store or the like, and she said she doesn’t. Such is life in the densely packed Golden Horseshoe.

This made me recall the time I was in Canadian Tire here in Charlottetown, and I ended up in the line in front of Pat Mella, at the time the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly. It felt like being in line in front of Sting, or Nelson Mandela (well, okay, maybe not that weird, but still pretty weird).

It has taken me a decade to come to terms with the Island’s compressed personality-o-sphere, where public school teachers become Lieutenant Governor and the guy fixing your car might be Minister of Environment come the next election.

Monday afternoon I was trying to get back in the work groove, and went out to get a frozen yoghurt at Just Juicin’ mid-afternoon to procrastinate. Who should I run into on the way home but Minister of Development and Technology Mike Currie, the man who is ultimately responsible for half of my weekly pay cheque. Fortunately he didn’t recognize me, and I was able to eat my yoghurt in anonimity.

As if by magic, who should walk by Timothy’s (the coffee shop on Kent St. where I type this note) but Premier Pat Binns and his staff. I should run out and ask for his autograph. But I’ll probably see him at Canadian Tire this weekend.

After years of running moribund television commercials advertising their “Day Adventures” (aka “we know you’re not actually going to want to spend the night here, but would you at least spend a little time before you drive to PEI?”), Tourism New Brunswick has produced some very compelling television commercials. They make we want to actually visit the Province. No, no this can’t be happening…

We present here the first in a series of Reinvented Virtual Courses®. Today’s topic: “Important Vocabulary Distinctions for French-Speaking Cabinet Ministers Discussing New Drug Legislation”.

Persecution - The act or practice of persecuting; especially, the infliction of loss, pain, or death for adherence to a particular creed or mode of worship. (From Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913)

Prosecution - The institution and carrying on of a suit in a court of law or equity, to obtain some right, or to redress and punish some wrong; the carrying on of a judicial proceeding in behalf of a complaining party, as distinguished from defense. (From Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913)

Used in a sentence: “The members of the sect were persecuted by their neighbours for their belief in a higher life force controlled by a racoon overlord.” vs. “The teen ruffians were prosecuted by the police for burning down the local elementary school.”

This concludes this course. For more e-learning opportunities, be sure to visit TownSquare.ca.