Who needs the Easter Bunny when you have Ullr bestowing his gift upon you? (And yes, the skiing was terrific!) Lutsen Gondola 2014 April 19 - YouTube
That’s lovely, Muffin. We had a gorgeous day today here, too - +17 or so, sunny and warm, and hardly any wind. I was able to get almost all of my flower beds cleared out, and see all the little green shoots poking their heads out. 
And the Piper taxes are all filed! Took a couple of late nights to find the time, but done!
So, did the mere mention of taxes drive everyone away all week?!?
I love looking at how news outlets spin stories:
Toronto Star - Court rejects Harper government proposals for Senate reform
Globe & Mail - Supreme Court rejects Harper government’s Senate overhaul plan
Calgary Herald - Harper says Senate reform is dead ‘for the time being’
Sun Newspapers - Senate changes require constitution reform: SCOC
Really, people need to get their news from more than one source to form their own opinion.
Yeah, in Ottawa, we can just cross the river to go to a Quebec Costco for beer.
Less than a week later, another snowstorm. Got stuck in my front yard for a while today trying to back out the drive. Looks like there will be skiing for the next couple of weekends!
No, but it was a good reminder that I had to do them. Which I did.
I’m a traditionalist, I guess. I have the paper forms and guides that I got from the post office. I did try a computerized program, but it gave me credits where I knew I had none (Employee GST Credits? I have no employees, so how can I have “Employee GST Credits”?) And it wouldn’t let me top-up my CPP contributions on self-employed earnings.
So, I used the paper forms and killed a bunch of trees to find out that, in spite of me owing CPP some money, I still have a refund coming.
HK has it all online. Takes minutes as there are only a few deductions available. Came out to about 11% owing last year on more income than I ever made in Canada. Somehow I don’t have the rage at the government here that I had when I lived in Canada.
It should be all online here too, and I don’t know why it isn’t. Yes, there may be times when a taxpayer needs an accountant to calculate all deductions, credits, etc. but I don’t know why CRA “certifies” independent software providers, when it could probably do it itself. (And better as regards self-employed earnings and mythical “employee GST credits”, as my experience indicated to me).
Until then, I think that I will get my paper forms and guide from the post office, and use my calculator.
And now for something completely different (and a LOT more fun than talking about taxes) - video I took today at Calgary’s Comic and Entertainment Expo of a Dancing Bunny Lady. Enjoy! 
I’m still getting over the snow we suffered yesterday. Honestly, it’s the end of April–haven’t we had enough snow?
We had snow all day at the convention Saturday - that was one miserable bunch of costumed geeks!
I’m the wrong guy to ask on that one. 
I think the snow in my area has finally finished for the time being. A few flowers are starting to come out. The trees still have no leaves though.
My driveway faces south so it melted out quickly once we finally got rid of the snow from March 30th. A few crocuses and daffodils have popped up but the trees are missing that fuzzy green haze that makes me think of spring.
I just heard this, and I was amazed - Calgary’s Comic and Entertainment Expo had 97,000 people this year. The big ComicCon in San Diego apparently has 130,000 - we’re rapidly catching up! WooHOo!
I’m making a video of all the footage I took at the Expo - I hope to have it done some time this week to share with all y’all.
I’d love to see the footage.
In other news - Rob Ford taking leave of absence, apparently. CBC storyhere, but they don’t have many details at the time I write this.
Globe & Mail is reporting there’s a new video from very recently of Ford smoking crack at his sister’s place.
The Canadope Café, 2014 Edition really is in 3D if you go here.
There are old 45 stereoscopic views over three pages of places in Canada. To see each in 3D, click on them to enlarge them and slowly cross your eyes. The image that appears in the middle will be three-dimensional.
They’re even better if you zoom the screen images after clicking on them. On a Mac, hold down the Control key and mouse-wheel up. Dunno how to do it on a Windows machine.