Easter Parade

The Beaches Lion Club has held an easter parade since 1935, and this Sunday was no exception!
Led by a variety of Emergency Services personel, the parade headed west on Queen St, before heading to the beach at Woodbine.





Including Sparky the fire dog, who was getting pretty close to those electrical wires, which is kind of dangerous, considering his name! Yikes!



Also in the parade were marching bands, including the Toronto Fire Band



and the Toronto Signal Band



and the great Samba Elegua band, which I don't think stopped playing during the entire parade!



And speaking of music, I'm pretty sure that Lady Gaga was there, or at least her egg!



And a whole lot of Miss (fill in the blank) girls!





A favourite part of the parade for the adults were the Lindt chocolatiers, who were handing out gold bunnies!





As one mom said, after eating the bunny, "these are adult candy's, not for kids"!

Starlight Destiny Cheerleaders were also happy to pose during the parade, and kept up the action throughout the day!



And also happy to join in the parade were Toronto Mayor Rob Ford,



and the local councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon



The parade marshal was Heather Moyse, a gold medal winner in bobsled in the Vancouver 2010 olympics!



And of course, what would an easter parade be without a visit from the 501st Legion!











All of this was enjoyed by the many children along the route,





as well as their parents!



And then they all said by, as Peter Rabbit finished off the parade in his JS4FUN car!

its a dogs life!

Well, a trip to High Park around this time of year usually yields lots of cherry blossoms, but this year, the late cold weather has put off the blossoms. But, there was still lots to do in the park, not the least of which is to visit the great off leash area.
Inside the fence limits, dogs are free to run and enjoy the company of others.

The very first dog I encountered was this guy, who was wearing his glasses! Apparently he has some vision problems, and the glasses help. His owner advised that he took to them right away, and realizes its important for him, and therefore leaves them on.



This husky spent the entire time just sitting around, not paying attention to any of the other guys around, but enjoying the day.



While this guy had obviously been doing some heavy duty playing, and would need a good bath once home!



From big dogs,



to little dogs,



there was lots of variety!

Go Green

I was down at the Direct Energy Centre for the Green Living Show. Samsung was offering free admission if I dropped off some old electronics, which I did. Got rid of some drives, an old cell phone, and even a mouse I haven't used in years.
Once in the door, there were lots of booths advertising how ecological or better for the environment they were compared to other products.

One of the reasons I was at the show was that a Nascar Canadian Tire driver, Joey McColm, had his car on display, and also gave a presentation on Saturday.





The car carried the sponsorship of Esper, a company which makes vehicle heaters, for both the vehicle and the driver/passenger.

I found it interesting that at the show there was a group called Green Box Rental, which apparently is the first group to provide plastic bins for moving, instead of traditional cardboard boxes.



And just a few aisles over was Frog Box, which apparently was not the first, but probably the more famous group, as they were on Dragons Den!



One of the display cars at the show had the new Green License Plate, which is supposed to allow you to drive in the HOV lanes on some of the major highways.



One of the more bizzare things at the show was the large number of car manufacturers who were selling their "green" cars. I could be wrong, but really, does the idea of a "green" porsche really fit the typical demographic of the person you would see at a Green Living Show?



On the same theme, I watched a round table featuring tips on green beauty items, and one of the comments that stuck out was that there are no "rules" as of yet when it comes to lots of claims like "natural", "organic", or even "green", and that many of these claims were not to be believed. What would these same people say about the majority of the items currenlty on display at their own show?!?

And on top of that, I was shocked to see this sign at the Lexus display.



Really, just cause you walked onto a carpet, your suddenly giving up all your rights to your own image??

Rematch!

In a rematch of last years TORD final, the Gore Gore Girls took on Chicks Ahoy at the Hanger this weekend. Unfortunately for the Chicks, the game ended the same way, but boy, was it a hard fought battle.

To start the show, a bunch of Toronto Argos were on hand to blow the start whistle.
They stayed for the entire game, and were very impressed with the efforts of both teams, and commented on the hard hitting!



Once the teams were introduced to the crowd,



The volunteers in place,



and refs were ready, the game could start!



And as i mentioned, it was a hard hitting game, with bodies hitting the floor hard!







Both teams jammers had a hard nite, battling through the blockers in an attempt to score all the points they could.



It was a close game for the majority of the match, but near the end, the Gore Girls increased their lead and took it to the end, winnning 132 to 83.

The Derby Girls have been very good at getting their sport out there, including mentions on the weekend sports of City TV!



And again, the sportsman ship of these girls is great. They always do a handshake at the start, during the intro's,



and lately have been gathering for us photographers at the end of the match for some team shots!



Also on hand for the nights event were a bachelor and sperarate bachelorette party. Here were the ladies, with the future bride in the boa!



One toy I was playing with was the Phottix Strato, which is a remote trigger for flashes. One of the big problems with shooting the Hanger is the light. With the flash, you always end up with red eye.



One solution is a flash bracket, which holds the flash away from its normal location on the hot shoe, but you need a sync cord to attached the relocated flash to the camera to trigger it, and they can be expensive. The other option is a remote, like the Strato, which allows you to totally relocate the flash and trigger it remotely. It doesn't allow for TTL use of the flash, but its about the same price, and in many ways is more effective.
I will have to pick up a few more receivers so I can set the remotes up for both of my cameras!