Can’t say we’ve been up to much in the last few days. Really, just work, some school (though not enough) and other extraneous activities in and around our home and lives.

School’s coming along well for me. I was able to complete my mid-term without too much rush last week, despite our little Banff getaway, and did pretty good – scored 97% on it. Now I just have to catch up on my readings, my textbook assignments and then write my final, and I should have my certificate in the bag.

One recent home improvement decision that we recently finalized was the greening of our electricity consumption. I’m happy to say that our house is now 100% bullfrogpowered®. I first noticed Bullfrog Power at some local Calgary businesses – namely Bernard Callebaut chocolaterie and Dairy Lane Café. After doing some research to learn more about what it is and what it would cost for us to sign up, I decided to make the commitment last month.

Bullfrog Power is an organization that charges consumers a modest overhead on their electricity consumption so that they can replace each household’s or business’s conventional electricity taken from conventional sources with green energy from renewable resources (such as wind). Here’s a quote from Bullfrog Power president Tom Heintzman’s comment in their latest newsletter, which provides a better explanation:

“Our goal is to give consumers an option they’ve never had before – a new, easy and unique way to support renewable electricity. First, Bullfrog Power uses your money to pay our generators a premium over the cost of conventional electricity for their green power. This premium recognizes the true cost of generating renewable electricity and the additional value of renewable electricity to society. The premium makes new renewable energy projects more economical and allows our generators to invest in new development. It also creates a market for green electricity.

Bullfrog Power also uses your support to enter into long-term contracts for the purchase of electricity from new renewable-generation facilities. The long-term revenue stream gives banks the comfort they need to provide financing to our generators for new generation facilities.”

It’s a feel good situation signing up with these guys – the cost is very modest (for our home, roughly $8 per month) and paying a premium will help make us more aware of, and accountable for our electricity consumption. Unfortunately, Bullfrog Power is only available to residents of Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario. For those of you in those provinces, I heartily suggest you sign up.

I’m busy next week photographing a certain politician once again as he meanders through Alberta celebrating Canada Day and the start of the Calgary Stampede, and then I’m off to Toronto for a few days of business. I’m trying hard to savor the summer and so far so good, but travel has a way of devouring days and weeks at a time, so I am glad that I don’t have any other travel obligations until the end of August.

Beyond that, it looks like I will have another busy fall travel season – visiting my parents in September, and then 6 consecutive weeks of travel in October and November – ranging from Whistler to Ottawa.

Happy summer everyone!