Kitchener, ON

By Warren McNeil,

I read a really interesting article about a Guelph based developer that bought a city block down between King, Madison, Charles and Cameron. The plan is to develop mixed use residential. They are paying 3.6 million for the land. There will likely be two high rise apartment buildings and some townhouses as well. There is no timeline when the construction will begin.

One part of the article I found interesting was the value of the land and how much it has increased in the past 5 years.

"Five years ago that land would probably have fetched $500,000 an acre. Fusion Homes paid about $1.5 million an acre."

In the past 10 years downtown Kitchener has seen many new developments. - Kaufman Lofts, LeMarch Condos, Mansion Lofts and the Eatons Lofts.

There are also ongoing developments: - Center City Block and Arrow Lofts.

According to the article, Kitchener has about 20 year supply of land for new construction developments. Waterloo has about 10 years and Cambridge is somewhere in between.

To see the full article, checkout http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/829098

I've always hated Kitchener water. It's the only water I've ever had that actually has an aftertaste. I've been told it's totally safe to drink, but the taste....ewww.

And then I got hooked on drinking bottled water. I'm a teetotaler, so when I had my first cup of tea made from distilled water I was hooked. No hard water slime, and it tasted like...how can I describe it? Oh yeah. Tea.

So we got a Culligan Water Cooler, which by the way lasted for over 10 years (a great product). But when it quit we had some decisions to make. Buy another, or try a different system. So we bought a Brita® Water Dispenser - you know the kind with the special filter?

Now I was leery at first, wondering how such a simple design could take out the "ewww" in Kitchener water. But much to my surprise it did. Kitchener water actually tasted good. Then I gave it the real test.

After boiling the kettle and letting my bag sit for the usual five - ten minutes I hesitantly took out the bag and peered into my cup. No scum. Awesome. I then took my first sip. My tea still tasted like tea. I was impressed.

So onto the Joker test. First I went onto Brita®'s site (Brita.ca) to make sure there were no harmful effects of the filter on animals. And I guess I wasn't the first to ask the question. On their FAQ page they specifically had the question asking if it was okay to give Brita® water to pets and the answer said it was good for most pets, and for all those fish lovers out there, especially good for fish, since the filter gets rid of certain elements in the water.

So, being the trusting soul that I am, I gave Joker his first bowl of filtered water and watched him like a hawk, making sure he didn't throw up and his bowel movements didn't change. It's a good thing he didn't have any bad effects from the water, because I gotta tell you, he absolutely loves that water. I've never seen him drink so much - especially ice cold, right out of the fridge.

So there you have it. I was a sworn bottled water person and now get my water out of the tap (no more hauling huge bottles around), and my dog is drinking more water than ever.

And did I mention it makes a great cup of tea?

By Warren McNeil,

Maybe you didn't know that Google had an office in Waterloo. Well they do and they are now moving their office to downtown Kitchener to the Lang Tannery building. They are planning on making the move this year. I think this is a smart move on Google's part because they are moving into an area that is undergoing huge changes. I have blogged in the past about the new condo developments in the downtown core. Some of the upcoming condo developments are the Arrow lofts (Auburn) and the Centre City Condominiums (Andrin). One of the best things about this move is that apparently Google is aggressively hiring so they need the larger space. It's always a good thing when companies are growing instead of downsizing or shutting down.

The Google projects in Waterloo are currently the upcoming Chrome operating system, HTML5 programming language and the "Buzz" social networking service. For me being a techy I find this really exciting. The more technology that surrounds me the better. I am really interested in seeing what rich media capabilities HTML5 will have. I heard that it is really going to give Flash a run for it's money. This could be made up hype but nevertheless there is some buzz out there about the controversy between Apple supporting html5 on their devices and not flash.. But I digress!!

In addition to Google, Waterloo is probably more well known for being the home of Research in Motion the makers of the Blackberry. FYI, RIM just released the new Backberry Torch so I hope everyone is going to buy one!

Doesn't Kitchener Waterloo sound like a cool place to live?

If you are a techy and you are looking for somewhere to live, you might want to consider Kitchener-Waterloo or Cambridge.

By Warren McNeil,

Well my favourite time of year is just about to arrive. It's not Christmas, its not my birthday, its Ribfest.. If you like eating food off of a paper plate, sampling craft beers and watching live entertainment, then come out to Victoria Park this weekend July 16-18. Mel and I will be there at least once and maybe even twice. I am really happy that Ribfest comes to Kitchener. I can remember a few years ago that we had to go to Guelph to get to ribfest. Check out this link for lots of pictures by the moderator, Urban Waterloo.

I have been to about 4 different Ribfests. I love these events because it reminds me of the US south. I love BBQ. When we travel through South Carolina, Georgia and Florida I love eating at the BBQ restaurants.

I am also excited  to mention that we have a listing which is only about half a block away from Victoria Park. What a convenient location if somebody wanted to enjoy future Ribfests or other events at Victoria Park. Check out our listing at 169 Joseph St in downtown Kitchener. :)

Victoria Park is awesome and is surrounded by many historic houses.

If you are looking for something to do this weekend and want to enjoy some great food and beer, checkout Downtown Kitchener Ribest and Craft Beer Show this weekend... 

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Thanks for reading and hope to see you there!

Swimming is a great way to cool down and is one of the best ways to exercise:

• It limits the amount of stress on your body while exercising - your weight in water is about 1/10 of your weight on land.
• It can soothe your mind as well as exercise your body by regulating breathing and stimulating circulation.
• It is a great warm up or cool down exercise to use with any other work out.

And then of course, it can relieve the stress caused by kids on holidays who are hot, but still have energy to burn :)

Kitchener has 4 indoor pools, 3 outdoor pools, 4 splash pads available to the public:

Indoor

Breithaupt Centre: 350 Margaret Ave

Cameron Heights: 301 Charles St East

Forest Heights: 253 Fischer Hallman Rd

Lyle S. Hallman Pool: 600 Heritage Dr

Outdoor

Idlewood Pool: 5 Thaler Avenue

Kiwanis Park: 600 Kiwanis Drive

Wilson Pool: 78 Wilson Avenue

Splash Pads

Breithaupt Park Splash Pad

Chandler Mowat Community Centre Splash Pad: 222 Chandler Drive

Doon Pioneer Park Community Centre Splash Pad: 150 Pioneer Drive

Victoria Park Splash Pad

For more information about all these public facilities visit: www.kitchener.ca/visiting_kitchener/pools.html