Jim and I watched this movie over the weekend and found it informative and engaging. I have certainly heard lots of bad press about Wal-Mart in terms of how they treat (and pay) their employees, which this movie discussed in part. They interviewed many former employees and managers, the latter confessing how they were trained to get folks to work unpaid overtime, and many other unethical practices. But the movie also looked at the negative impact getting a Wal-Mart has had on many smaller towns in the US, their environmental record, the crime in their parking...

Did your family do anything to mark the day? We watched a couple of BBC April Fools videos with the boys. There was much giggling from our two little nature nuts. Check out flying penguins, flying penguins—the making of, and the classic from the 1950s, spaghetti trees. Daegan particularly liked the mention of the dreaded spaghetti weevil. Happy April Fools!

Over the weekend Jim and I watched the Michael Moore documentary, Sicko. It was both fascinating and very, very disturbing. I can now see more clearly the opposition to “two-tier” healthcare in Canada (privatization of some procedures), and have come to the conclusion that medical care (and health insurance) cannot ethically be run for profit. The Hippocratic oath—first, do no harm—seems to me incompatible with trying to maximize profits for shareholders of HMOs. Asking someone in dire medical need to switch to an approved hospital, or not treating until proof of payment (or demanding pre-payment), or denying necessary medical treatment,...

A while back I posted some videos of the boys singing the archaeopteryx song from the show Big Green Rabbit. Folks from the show contacted me, and asked if the boys would like a package of goodies from Charlie, the Big Green Rabbit—no strings attached. Well, the package has arrived and has given us all a much needed boost. This week has been a trying one; we’ve all got colds, Jim broke his wrist, and the weather has turned to bitter winter (forecast was for a –42C windchill this morning!) with a good dump of snow. The boys are thrilled...

On Friday Gareth had another of his drama classes at the nearby Arts Centre, and he is simply thriving. This is his first successful go at an unparented class. Last year at this time I put both boys into an unparented yoga class, thinking that having his older brother in the room would help ease Gareth’s transition to classes sans Mom or Dad. Nope! He just wasn’t ready. This time around he is in class with his friend Daniel, and is having a wonderful time—not a single issue. What a difference a year makes! After class Daniel and his...

By Monday Jim and I were feeling better, so I went out to do a little shopping for my family on Family Day, while Jim took the boys skating on our neighbourhood outdoor rink. When I got back, Daegan showed me the cardboard pterosaur he made (with a bit of help from dad making the slits for the wings): I brought back a new pair of pajamas for Gareth, who LOVES Harry and His Bucketful of Dinosaurs (both the show and the books). Long sleeve, 100% cotton (both of which are necessary to keep Gareth’s eczema...

Here’s some of what the boys got up to today. Gareth built a city: And both boys built dinosaurs with their magnet sets. (We have a ‘Under the Sea’ set too; I think the company that makes them is called Monkey Magnets). Some they built following a guide: Others, they made free-hand. Daegan made a pteranadon and an archaeopteryx: We also played a couple rounds of the math game, 4-Way Countdown, using addition only, and...

Yesterday Daegan watched Nova: The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies, about the monarch migration. I was working at my computer, half-listening to the show in the background. The part about the monarch’s wintering grounds in Mexico caught my attention. While the Mexican government has set aside sections of the forest where the monarchs overwinter as a sanctuary, they do not have sufficient people (or money? or interest?) to enforce this. And some folks in the local Mexican population do not have enough money to feed themselves or their children. So the sanctuary area is being illegally logged, with devastating...

Jim and I recently took the ‘90s BBC comedy series The Thin Blue Line out of the library, and have thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s what Rowan Atkinson did after Blackadder and Mr Bean, and is again very different from both—and much more of an ensemble piece. Here’s the imdb (Internet Movie Database) link for the curious: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112194/ We watched season one / Disk 1 (this is British TV, so a season is all of 7 half-hour episodes), and a few nights later finished season 2 / Disk 2. On the weekend we made a point of getting the...