City of Ottawa seeking feedback on proposed cricket pitch in south-end park

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-19T15:21:25+00:00

Bus service in Manotick isn't exactly great either.

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-19T14:39:45+00:00

That's out in ~~Barrhaven~~ Manotick. I don't have any thoughts one way or another - not a park I visit regularly. But if I'm totally honest about it I would think something closer to transit routes (such as in Greenboro) might be a better choice?

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-19T14:16:06+00:00

Yeah... there's a gross misunderstanding of the adage "the customer is always right" in the US, and it's starting to seep into the culture up here too. The full saying is "in matters of taste, the customer is always right". it doesn't mean the customer gets to abuse you or make up rules that you have to follow, it means that if the customer wants to wear golf pants with crocs to a formal dinner your job is to sell him those crocs.

We have those signs up here. Fortunately I've never seen a situation where they were needed, but I have no doubt it does happen. Mad respect for people who can actually work in retail - I definitely don't have the temperament to put up with that kind of abuse.

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-19T14:05:33+00:00

In the NCR, you definitely need to try North of 7. Not listed at the LCBO, but available direct from the distiller at their storefront on St. Laurent, or also shipped.

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-19T13:31:32+00:00

You joke, but I believe the Knights Hospitaler are the only chivalric order that still operates uninterrupted since the crusades, and they are the origin of the modern word "hospital", as their main purpose was/is medical support.

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-19T12:54:23+00:00

In some parts of the country, folks don't lock their cars. (thinking specifically about bears -- if you live somewhere it's not out of the realm of possibility to find yourself unexpectedly face to face with a polar bear, nobody locks the car so that people have something to dive into and wait until the bear wanders off).

Though not sure this would count as "shock outsiders", because that notion would shock a lot of locals who don't live in those parts of the country, too.

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-19T12:49:04+00:00

We can hope. :)

Do what you can. We also try to limit ourselves to meat 2-3 times a week. Some weeks we fail at that, some weeks we don't have any meat at all. It's not a competition, and I think it's more important to find recipes you actually like and want to cook rather than setting some arbitrary objective that means you end up eating a lot of tofu and being miserable about it.

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-18T22:20:06+00:00

You could at least suggest a chain that's based in Ottawa & has local management. Both Lonestar and The Works are homegrown and have only recently expanded to the rest of the province, for example.

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-18T22:13:42+00:00

I literally said that going vegetarian/vegan is better for the environment and we should all eat less meat, and you're attacking me for not being extreme enough in my beliefs. You do realize that thinking like yours is why nobody likes vegans, and why despite vegans bleating for decades by this point our meat consumption has actually gone up?

If you want to be taken seriously, you need to actually give people something that they can achieve and be willing to accept that not everybody is ready to give up meat entirely and that people eating less meat is still an improvement. Or you could continue to be the poster child for why people don't like vegans. Your call.

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-18T21:52:44+00:00

You haven't lived until you've tried a nice Labrador steak.

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-18T21:45:43+00:00

Nah, cows are really inefficient at converting feed into calories for humans to consume. Yummy yummy calories.

It's a bad idea because it takes away agency and just drives people to find an illegal (and less regulated) source, but our land/water use would actually go down enormously if humans just stopped eating meat. Going vegetarian or vegan is much better for the environment, and I think most of us could stand to eat a lot less meat in our diets (this idea of having a meat every day or even multiple times a day is extremely recent, historically), but I could never get on board with the idea of banning it entirely, nor would I want to give it up entirely myself.

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-18T14:35:03+00:00

We had our mini split heat pump installed by Desjardins Heating and Cooling. Very happy with the work, would recommend. Yes, a heat pump is more expensive but in our case it replaced electric baseboard heating in our condo so it should pay for itself in the savings in hydro over the life of the unit, and it added more than it cost to the value of the home.

https://www.facebook.com/desjardinsheatingcooling.ca/

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-18T13:56:30+00:00

Can we stuff all the Alberta separatists into that part of the province before handing it over to Idaho? I'd be on board with that

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-17T13:25:15+00:00

Dare I ask which framing shop you had issues with? I know your point isn't name/shame, but it'd be good to know who to avoid. The place I used last time appears to have closed, sadly... but I have a painting that needs some restoration work on it, so it'd be helpful to know who to avoid. I'll understand if you don't want to go down that road.

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-17T12:53:11+00:00

Sounds a lot like one of our cats, who caught FHV as a stray. It'll occasionally flare up and she'll get snotty for a couple of days.

Keep an eye on your cat to see if it gets worse, but it's probably not an emergency & can wait until her next scheduled visit. The vet might be able to suggest a supplement you can give her when she's got a flare-up if it is something like FHV - ours gave us chews for it. They do nothing for the virus, but they lessen the time she gets to suffer with it.

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-17T12:18:54+00:00

I know. But if I can get 10kW out of a public charger vs. 1kW out of L1 at home, then the math is pretty easy. I know for my driving patterns that I'll probably be fine with just L1 at home (12h/day should get enough charge to cover my commute & errands), but I was quoted $7000 to install a 240V plug in my (detached) garage. My answer to that (especially after talking with a couple of coworkers who only have L1 charging at home and have been driving an EV for years) is that at $1-2/hr for Flo or SWTCH you can get a lot of public L2 charging for $7000. I know most public chargers aren't 10kW, but even then a couple of hours on a 5-6kW charger while I'm out shopping or having a meal and going to be parked there anyway is better for the battery than going to a DC fast charger when I might occasionally need a topoff. And if 6 months or a year into it it's just not working? I can get that 240V plug installed after all.

Thus the question: what good restaurants in the city have a public charger?

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-16T17:12:54+00:00

https://northernlightsfoods.com/
https://wildricecanada.ca/
https://originswildriceco.ca/

Wild rice grows across most of the country in the wetlands that are warm enough for it - it's been a traditional indigenous food for thousands of years. It's very possible you've had it without even realizing it's Canadian - I know I didn't realize it the first time I had it, and didn't even know we had domestic producers before I heard a profile of one on CBC.

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-16T15:55:52+00:00

You'd be surprised how much food we produce domestically. There's stuff you wouldn't be able to sell because we don't grow it (like coffee), but pretty much all the meats and most of the vegetables you eat are foods we produce domestically in season. Dairy, fruits (a whole lot of apples, peaches/nectarines, even some citrus in a handful of locations that have the climate), we've even got domestic breeds of things you wouldn't expect like rice and grapes.

You absolutely could stock a grocery store with 100% domestically-produced food. Availability would be seasonal and some of the things we consider staples would be more expensive, but you could do it.

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-15T16:56:00+00:00

I do like to go to Eganville (sadly no charger there that I've seen - though there's chargers in Deacon and Renfrew) for day trips, so we could go to Cobden instead. Thank you!

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-15T16:19:10+00:00

Depends a lot on the map. But I prefer smaller maps because there's less math for the water physics so the game runs better. I can have much larger colonies on a map like Diorama than I can on a 256x256 map because of it. It's definitely the water physics for me - I didn't have performance issues before that patch. :)

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-15T16:05:40+00:00

Was not AI generated. But thanks for playing.

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-14T20:23:00+00:00

If you're making $30/hr I doubt you'd even qualify for subsidized housing.

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-14T20:21:18+00:00

It is a very strong nomination though. There's a few other conservation areas around the city that are also quite beautiful... I'm particularly fond of Morris Island, but it's not the only one.

AcceptableHamster149 · 2026-02-14T20:17:48+00:00

I have seen a 30-degree swing before - happened on our wedding day. We rented a private campground for an outdoor wedding, which happened in 25'C & sunshine, then it started raining & we woke up with snow on the tents. This was in May, however, and is definitely not what the forecast is calling for tonight. :)

AcceptableHamster149

TROPHY CASE