It was a best ball tournament so I didn’t have to be very good. Nevertheless, my foursome did end up using some of my balls. Although I think the rule was they had to use two drives for every golfer.

I digress. I enjoyed the day so much during the dinner we had afterward, I was talking with Lyndsey, our traffic reporter and we decided we just might take it up.

I could never golf with a serious golfer. I would be annoying. But I think Lyndsey would have quite a bit of fun on the links.

And to think there was a time I didn’t see the point to golf.

Kate

It’s been weeks, maybe even months, since the entire Afternoon News team has worked together. Between holidays, and filling in on different shifts, we’ve been apart for a long time.

 But today, that all changed! Sherry was back in the News Cruiser gauging the pulse of Waterloo Region; Arlene was back in the editors chair; Blair was back on sports; Lyndsey was making sure your drive home was a smooth one; and Mike and I were together again, bringing you the latest news as it happened.

The various part time staff who filled in for us while we took our various vacations were a talented bunch. They did a great job. But there’s something to be said for familiarity.

We have a rhythm in the afternoon. We all know what to do and we do it. We have our inside jokes and no one “gets” our humour like us.

So cheers, to my favourite news team!

Kate

 It’s a take on the Metrosexual. According to Webster’s New Millennium dictionary of English a Metrosexual is “a heterosexual male who has a strong aesthetic sense and inordinate interest in appearance and style.”

According to the story we aired, a Retrosexual doesn’t shave below the neck, doesn’t use gel and owns at least one pair of work boots. The opposite of a metrosexual.

A guy friend of mine use to fit the definition of a Retrosexual until I asked what he wanted to drink. His response: vodka and mango juice.

Huh? We’re talking about a cottage weekend. Perhaps I should have been more specific with the question. What I really wanted to know was which brand of beer I should pick up.

There’s nothing wrong with liking fruity drinks, I was just taken aback that my earlier assumption about this gentleman had been off.

So at the cottage this weekend I’ll drink a beer while he sips his Vodka and Mango.

 Kate

My runs this summer have been more comfortable and productive than last.

Spring and fall are the best times to run. It’s not too hot, but you don’t have to wear all kinds of layers to keep warm either.

In fact my runs have been going so well, I may enter a marathon. There are not any coming up that I have enough time to train for, but maybe in the spring, if the winter is mild, I’ll sign up for my first big race.

Kate

I did as little as possible.

 I did, however, tackle those chores that you just can’t seem to face after a day at the office. Most importantly I cleaned the basement.

It was in dire need of some TLC and after having pretty well finishing it, I feel much more refreshed than if I’d spent the week on a beach.

Every time I went downstairs to do a load of laundry, The Mess glared at me.  I knew there could be all kinds of creatures living under the piles of stuff that we’d been meaning to get to for a while. Knowing now that there are no piles for creatures to hide under is a weight off my shoulders.

I look forward to curling up in front of the fire place this winter with a good book on the newly steamed couch.

Kate

 The Afternoon News will be left in the capable hands of Mike Farwell.

Kate

Spending every day reading stories of various problems in the world, a running trend seems to be that ultimately most are cause by someone getting greedy.

Oil speculators inflating the price of crude and in turn, increasing the cost of gasoline.

CEOs increasing the cost of their companies products because last year’s profit just wasn’t high enough.

Third world governments keeping international aide for themselves while children starve.

Why can’t these people be content with enough. Enough. An interesting word. Dictionary.com describes enough as adequate for the want or need.

Yet is seems adequate is well, not enough for most people. A nice safe home just doesn’t cut it when you can take out a 40 year mortgage for your dream home. One of the factors behind the mortgage crisis in the US.

Much Music runs a show call The Fabulous Life Of…. It gives viewers and inside look of how the other one per cent of the population lives. This weekend was The Fabulous Life Of…the Hamptons.

One CEO vacations in a 27 million dollar mega mansion. That’s his weekend home.  Does he ever think that perhaps a 500 thousand dollar cottage is…enough? Would he ever give that extra profit to improve the life of people living in the most extreme poverty? Not likely when he can have a home so ridiculously large that municipal leaders in the Hamptons banned further construction of homes that big.

Children are starving. For that reason alone he should share the wealth.

Sure he may argue he is not greedy and his company chooses to pay him such a large salary. I am not a religious person but one phrase has stuck with me and I would use it to counter that argument: “The hottest pits of Hell are reserved for those who sit idly by.”

 Kate

 They waste paper; cost money when you have to send a fax farther than across the street; no one can figure out how to operate them; and are no match for the efficiency of email.

 This week I was asked for our fax number, and I was tempted to ask, why? I don’t get it.

Email is cheap, if not free if you set up a yahoo, hotmail, gmail or any other web-based account; it’s fast; it’s paperless; and replying to it is easy.

Did you ever see the movie Office Space? When the guys took the fax machine out to that field and trashed it with a baseball bat? I want to do that. I wonder if anyone around here would notice ours missing….

Kate

 She went on a rant about her husband, their marital woes and even some problems with their intimate relationship. She aired it all.

What is wrong with people? What happened to dealing with life’s lemons in private?

Sure, tell a few close friends that you suspect your spouse may  be cheating, scream and yell in the privacy of your own home, but don’t make a spectacle of yourself.

There have been times when I would have loved to scream and humiliate someone who upset me, but then yelling never solved anything.

When things go wrong in the newsroom and we think about either “speaking” to someone or sending an emotionally charged email we remind each other to wait 24 hours. It keeps unwanted drama out of our lives.

Cooler heads always prevail.

 Kate

She will always be remembered as the sarcastic Sophia on the 80’s sitcom, the Golden Girls.

 While I was just a wee lass when the show aired, I’ll never forget how mom would laugh at the shenanigans of Rose, Blanche, Dorothy and Sophia. She’d have tears in her eyes.

Years later, when the show was in re-runs, I finally got the jokes. There was a lot of innuendo in that show that goes right over a kid’s head.

It wasn’t until today though that I realized it was make up that made Sophia look so old. She was actually only in her 60’s when she starred in the show. Mom loves it when I use lines like: “only 60.”

Kate