Recently in Administrata Category

A quick note to say that I discovered three comments sitting in the spam filter earlier today that weren’t spam comments at all. These have all been restored and are now publicly viewable. But I also notice that there has been a dearth of comments here since the beginning of February, which makes me wonder if the spam filter has been a little too hungry for its own good.

If you’ve posted a comment here and it hasn’t appeared, I apologize. At this point, any comments that haven’t appeared yet are probably vanished into the ether. But from this point on, if your comment doesn’t appear within a couple of hours of posting, please drop me a line and let me know, and I’ll look into the problem and fix it. Gradually, the spam filter will learn not to treat you so badly.

Here is the first edition of the Carnival of Waterloo-Wellington Blogs, a (I hope) monthly event where we trawl some interesting links from interesting bloggers blogging about or from inside the region. Without further ado, here is what we’re talking about:

• Regional Councillor Jane Mitchell loves the new Waterloo museum. I agree that the building is striking, and I would like to pay it a visit.
• Urbanity is talking about Kitchener-Waterloo amalgamation.
• At Home on Hespeler remembers the freedom of music and the vinyl LP.
• Right of Centre Ice considers the supreme court ruling on the constitutional rights of Omar Khadr.
• Record blogger Take the Lane considers the rash of pedestrian deaths in Toronto and how to stand out while crossing the street.
• The blog 59 Carden Street looks into the funding dispute between the City of Guelph and Wellington County.
• More great photography from an Insider’s Guide to Waterloo Region.

As always, to hear the latest from our local bloggers, consult this web page. If you have a local blog and would like to be added to the list, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

I’m typing this note at my father-in-law’s residence in Lincoln, Nebraska where the weather is an unseasonably high (but still very welcome) 65’F. Those of you suffering from Snowmaggedon in the Region of Waterloo and County Wellington should take some heart that this warm weather may be heading your way in a couple of days. Keep your fingers crossed that it will come with bright sunshine and clear skies, enough to put a dent in all of the snow on our lawns.

We’re still getting up and running on turning the Waterloo Wellington Bloggers Association from a mere blogroll to a community group blog, but I’m pleased at the writers’ we’ve gathered and the enthusiasm they bring to the table. In the New Year, I hope to have more writers joining us, bringing their own unique perspective about the community they live in to the diverse collection of articles others have posted.

Until then, enjoy your holiday season here in Waterloo-Wellington, have a Happy New Year, and stay safe!

Sincerely,
James Bow

Hello all and thanks to James Bow for the invitation. I’ve lived in the tri-city ever since I started at the University of Waterloo in 1991. I lived in Waterloo from 1991 to 1996 and then moved to Cambridge in 1997. From 1998 to 2002 I lived in Kitchener and since then I have lived in Cambridge (Preston to this who pre-date the merger, but I won’t get into that…yet).

I have two daughters and one of the plays hockey in the Cambridge Roadrunners Girls Hockey Association. In trying to teach her more about the game I decided to take her and the family to see a Cambridge Fury Jr Women’s Game. I have watched a lot of hockey in my life and I must say that I was very impressed. It was a very fast paced game with plenty of intensity. Much more physical than I expected a jr women’s game to be. However there is no actual bodychecking so there is none of the goon-stuff that I worry about bringing my kids to see. Without bodycheckign the game is more skilled as the players are allowed to make plays and get into areas on the ice where they would get creamed in the men’s game. It is a welcome change and my wife and I both said we would definately go back for another game.

If you are looking for a quality sporting event, that is very affordable (it didn’t cost us anything to get into the game in Hespeler) then I recommend checking out either the Cambridge Fury or the Waterloo KW Rangers of the Provincial Women’s Hockey League.

This venture began when I noticed that, while there was no central blog for the region of Waterloo or its neighbours, the City of Guelph and the County of Wellington, other smaller communities were passing us. So, inspired by the work of International Metropolis, I’ve decided to turn the modest Waterloo-Wellington Bloggers Association into more than just an aggregator of local blogs.

The aggregator will remain, and local blogs are more than welcome to sign on, but I’d like this page to become a repository of local and regional content. For this, I need writers. Do you have a review of a local restaurant? Post it here. Do you have comments on the goings on at your local council? Write it up. Do you want to wax poetic about the scenic wonders of Mennonite country? Go right ahead; I want to hear from you.

It’ll take a little while before this blog is ready for prime time, but until then, keep an eye on this space.