You can visit Raw Sugar’s facebook page to find out more: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21717726987
Have fun!

Raw Sugar café, the coffee shop on my street corner (Somerset and Cambridge), is open at last. I went in for a coffee and met the owner, Nadia Kharyati.

I thought that building was too small for a coffee shop, but I was mistaken. Don’t forget that it used to be divided in two, with the back part used as a travel agency. Now it’s opened up and full of mismatched tables, chairs, and sofas.

Here are a couple of pictures.

Look, an organ

Attractive young women eyeing the muffins

It’s really nice in there. Good coffee too. And so far it’s not half as screwy as the Umi Café.

Raw Sugar has a facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21717726987

And a bowl of free buttons.

Umi Café also has a facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=23224718481

I think it’s amazing how important facebook has become.

Our Lady of the tow-away zone

Raw Sugar fights back

Raw Sugar, the other new coffee shop in Chinatown, has taken a long time to get open. Umi Café beat them by a mile and is now a jumpin’ little place. But Raw Sugar still has some tricks up its sleeve.

Strategic voting in Ottawa Centre

I think I’ll have to vote for the NDP’s Paul Dewar, just to try and prevent Liberal Penny Collenette from taking the riding. (Maybe I’m naive, but I can’t see anybody voting for the Conservative. I think this is a battle of the left.)

I like Paul Dewar and I’m happy to have him represent Centretown. I would have preferred to vote Green, but I don’t think Jen Hunter is ready.

Here’s Paul Dewar with his new glasses and goatee. Lookin’ good Paul!

Here’s another walking man. This one is walking his bike like a good citizen. See XUP’s blog for a raging debate about cyclists on the sidewalk.

My cat, almost unique among cats in having an entire executive-style desk chair for his own use, now prefers to lie on top of a box on a table beside my desk. There he glares discontentedly at me as he pushes flashlights, pens, and hard drives onto the floor with his feet.

Box sans cat

When my cat isn’t sleeping on his cardboard box he’s taken to inserting himself into the small space bounded by my keyboard, phone, and monitor. Here he is waiting for a call. I don’t know what he’s doing with the can of beans. I didn’t think he liked them.

This is actually one of the most annoying things my cat does, because he has found a way to shut down the computer by pressing certain keys with his feet. I don’t know what keys they are. I can’t do it.

Oh, you know I love my cat. But he can stand a little teasing.

Today I saw this small murder of crows on Lorne Ave.

According to the American Society of Crows and Ravens, “A ‘murder’ of crows is based on the persistent but fallacious folk tale that crows form tribunals to judge and punish the bad behavior of a member of the flock. If the verdict goes against the defendant, that bird is killed (murdered) by the flock. The basis in fact is probably that occasionally crows will kill a dying crow who doesn’t belong in their territory or much more commonly feed on carcasses of dead crows. Also, both crows and ravens are associated with battlefields, medieval hospitals, execution sites and cemeteries (because they scavenged on human remains). In England, a tombstone is sometimes called a ravenstone.”

I’ve been meaning to show you this rainbow I saw on Monday night. This is looking up Gladstone from Preston. It was a complete bow — you could see both ends of it — but I couldn’t get it all in the picture.

That’s all I’ve got for today. Have a happy long weekend!

I like it there a lot. It’s got a great view of the human parade on Somerset. When I’m sitting in there having a coffee and reading the paper, I feel just like Dave Barwick. (That’s a shameless in-joke. Sorry! It won’t happen again.)

They’re having their grand opening on Friday. Here’s the poster:

(sigh…) If only the people at the Umi would learn how to spell Somerset.