My Recommendations

The Electrical & Plumbing Store specializes in (surprise) lighting and plumbing with a large focus on bathrooms. They've been around for several years and have a fairly large inventory of lights and other accessories.  We've bought lights and fixtures from them in the past. They've never had everything in stock but it usually arrived from their East-end store in under a week. Recently, in the middle of renovations, we ordered a fairly large light and were told by the salesman (Brian), it would take possibly 2-3 weeks because it had to be shipped.  After 3 weeks, it still hadn't arrived in. All of the renovations are done so we want to finish this off. We were told to speak to Paul. He tells us that they placed the order but it wouldn't ship it until they had more orders. It might take 12-18 weeks. Huh? He didn't want to pay the extra money ($100) for shipping. Fine - why not add it to the cost of the order or give the customer the option? This is craz...

Roofing....everyone needs a roof over their heads. After 18 years, it was time to replace ours. Neighbours in the area were getting it done and there were lots of signs all over the neighbourhood for different companies. Who to choose? We saw their work at another home and had them come in for an estimate. How long does it take to do a roof? With Century Roofing & Siding , our home in Kanata, Ontario (Ottawa area) was done in less than 9 hours!! They were fast, respectful of the environment (with tarps covering the area), efficient and friendly. John Barresi came in to provide an estimate. After measuring extensively, he sat and went through all of the details of the work that would be done. Some companies like to give options - Century doesn't - they say what the job will be and deliver it. They don't skimp on things and in our area, where we get a lot of ice build up and windy weather, this has to be taken into account. He said right up front, we aren't the chea...

Scenario: You buy a product at a Best Buy and the clerk tells you "give us your email and you may win xxxx, we're giving away one a month" - sounds good so you give away your email or phone or whatever. Months go by and eventually you get an email or text message saying "you've won our prize for this month...click here" and it actually refers to Best Buy. Then you get redirected to Ziinga which offers "7 day free registration". Ziinga's offer is very deceptive - here's why. To use Ziinga, you have to buy "bid credits" - which sounds like a great day - $1 a bid but for $50, they'll give you 40 free. Awesome, right? No. When you purchase the credits, you are also signing into their terms of service which says (but only on the receipt AFTER you purchase). " Please be informed that the 7 days free Platinum membership included with this offer gives you exclusive Bid-for-Free auctions, an additional 10% on all bid pa...

When James Cameron's Titanic first came out in December 1997, my wife and I joked to our daughter "why are you going to see this movie? it sinks!!!!". Then we finally went to see it in a theatre in May of 1998 (yes, the movie was in theatres that long) and loved it. Since then, of course, the movie has been the subject of Oscars, adoration, commentary and criticism, much of which was directed at James Cameron's dialog and story-telling ability. This is likely because any other faults are just too minor to be serious. Cameron, known for the Terminator franchise, simply can't write good movies, so the argument goes. The same criticism was put to him when he released Avatar. That may be true but he can write a movie people want to see. Cameron's writing is similar to those movies that are cliched, predictable, cheesy but are so well done it makes people want to see movies. This is the reason why Michael Bay may make movies that makes several million dollars wi...

If you are using gMail and ever wondered what your usage is really like, check out gMail Meter. What does this do? Well, it may help you change your email habits by showing your patterns. The link from LifeHacker is here You create a new spreadsheet in Google Docs, name it Gmail Meter and then run a script from the Script Gallery. Then let the script run. It can take a while to run but you can just let it go, it will send you an email when it's done with all of the stats. What kind of stats? Here's just a smattering of the stats: Very cool!

After trying different songs and styles over the past 4 years, Jason Mraz comes up with an album that is very different from his previous offerings yet still succeeds in delivering a satisfying sound. If you're looking for the upbeat and fast-paced funk of We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things, you won't find it here. That may be the biggest problem for his thousands of fans. This album is definitely more subdued than his other efforts.  The risqué lyrics and fun wordplay that many fans have come to love aren't on this album - yet the song writing on this album seems more focused on its goal. The production on Love Is a Four Letter Word is very smooth - lush strings come in to add those touches, the horns are not in your face (with the exception of The Freedom Song) and the harmonies are light and airy.  With the exception of voice, guitar and drums, every instrument comes and goes very discreetly, adding their touches when needed but without fanfare. This can both be ...

My review on Yelp Update: SADLY - the Tap room closed earlier this year. Now, we have to find another place for our New York visits. We had a late lunch at the Tap Room the day after Thanksgiving. My wife's comment says it all - "Judge away, Tom, judge away" - a reference to the fact that many people complain about the way Tom judges on Top Chef. The entire experience (service, food, everything) is exactly what a restaurant should be. A 25$ prix-fixe for lunch (two courses) is a STEAL for a restaurant of this quality. I had a frise fig and walnut salad (I typically wouldn't enjoy frise) and it was amazing. My wife had the bean soup and fell in love with it.  Then I had the ricotta cavaletti with oyster mushrooms. Delicious. My wife had a flat-iron steak (something she doesn't usually eat) and loved it. The service was spot-on - dishes arrived as soon as we were ready for them, impeccable timing and perfectly casual. Wine was expensive but well worth it. Saw...