Life & Music
Family stories, concerts, memories and the other bits of life that don't involve servers, investing or fixing something around the house.
Latest Life & Music Posts
Everything I've written about Life & Music in one place. Pick a post and disappear down another rabbit hole.
Are you prepared? A Canadian family's 3, 7 and 30-Day emergency preparedness guide
What would your family do if the power went out for three days, a winter storm shut down the roads for a week, or a major emergency disrupted everyday life for a month? Here's a practical Canadian-focused guide to preparing your household for 3, 7 and 30 days.
Apparently I'm making pump-up songs now
With Paige playing ringette for the Metcalfe Hornets and Sadie playing volleyball with Mission Recon, both teams need a good anthem of their own.
Road trip day 2: Tom Petty concert day
Our 2010 road trip continued through the Adirondacks to Saratoga Springs, where a speeding ticket, Crosby, Stills & Nash and Tom Petty made for a day we’d never forget.
Tom Petty Road Trip - Day 1: Ottawa to Tupper Lake
Originally posted in August 2010. This is one of the old posts I've managed to partially recover from an archived version of AdamSooley.ca on archive.org. The beginning survived, but unfortunately most of the original Day 1 post didn't. I've cleaned up what
Mr. Nice Cream: The story of our Riverside South ice cream bikes.
For a few summers, we owned a small fleet of old-fashioned ice cream bikes in Riverside South. It started with a Kijiji ad, ten bikes, two freezers and a U-Haul trip to Cornwall.
Apparently 2026 became our year of live music
Our Lady Peace, Cody Johnson, Angine de Poitrine, Sheryl Crow, Ella Langley, Shaggy, Gwen Stefani, The Wallflowers and Zach Bryan. Apparently 2026 became my year of live music.
I think we've forgotten how to be bored...
And I'm starting to think that's a problem. We used to be really good at being bored When I was growing up, being bored was just part of life, you'd sit there, you'd stare out the window, you'd go outside,
Remembering 9/11, and the power of friendship
Twenty-five years ago, I was starting my final co-op term in Ottawa when September 11 changed the world and changed my life. Today, I reflect on Canada's and Newfoundland's extraordinary response, the friendships that grew from tragedy, and 25 years of working to protect Canadians.
Vacation 2026 - Niagara Falls & Toronto
Day 1 - The Wallflowers in Ottawa Well, vacation 2026 is over as quick as it began, but what a great vacation it was. It started on August 20 where Jodi and I got to attend the opening night of the new Ottawa music venue, History Ottawa and see The Wallflowers.
Don't Be Scared of the Windsor: A Guide to the Perfect Tie Knot
Let's talk about something that I think genuinely intimidates a lot of people: the Full Windsor knot or any tie knot for that matter. It sounds so... official. So "boardroom" and "black tie." for years, I just stuck to the simple, I’ll let