Wishing you and your families a wonderful Christmas holiday and a Happy New Year.

Don’t forget to click on the “Details” button for a short personal message from me.

Happy Holidays!

Today is Thanksgiving for my friends in the U.S. and I want to wish you all a happy and healthy Thanksgiving. I couldn’t be happier to have come across an amazing blog post today with news that has without a doubt given many of us a reason to be thankful.

Not so long ago, I came across a tweet posted on Twitter by a friend and colleague of mine, Laura Monroe of Creative Agent Solutions.com. This “retweet” really hit home for me and after retweeting Laura’s post myself, I immediately followed the link to read more.

I was saddened to read that Lisa, The Domestic Diva, has a teenage daughter Marielle that was hospitalized due to a deteriorating kidney disease. Marielle’s condition was worsening and they were desperate to find a kidney donor. I proceeded to go back in The Domestic Divas’ posts to follow this incredibly difficult journey Marielle, Lisa and their family had been on.

Today is a good day! Today I learned that Marielle is home and happy to spend Thanksgiving with family. Not only that, with thanks to the news of Marielle’s situation going viral, they have finally found a match. Lisa’s news of her daughter needing a kidney donor was spread over the internet via blog posts, Twitter, Facebook and eventually wound up on Fox News.

It is amazing to see that with the passion of family, friends and even strangers, backed by the power of the Internet, news can be spread globally in a matter of days, hours and even minutes. Without the outpouring of support from these people and the ability to reach them via the internet, Marielle may not have received the overwhelming response of donor applications that they did. Donor applications came from all over the U.S., Africa and Saudi Arabia.

I can’t tell you how happy I am for you Marielle, Lisa and your whole family. I wish you all the best in the coming weeks.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.

Today I am proud to be a part of the second annual Blog Action Day. Each year on October 15th, thousands of bloggers, spanning the globe, unite to bring awareness to one specific global issue. This year bloggers aim to “bring awareness, initiate action and shake the web” about poverty using their own unique voice.

I would like to bring this to your attention. Every three seconds…

…a child dies from extreme poverty and over 1 million Canadian children live in poverty. These numbers are unacceptable and something can be done. Get involved! It’s not hard and it doesn’t have to cost you a dime. Your voice is a powerful and effective tool to get the word out that we must Make Poverty History, our children depend on it.

For more information about poverty in Canada, and globally, visit the sites below. These sites will help explain the little things we can do that could have huge impact on this battle to end poverty.

Make Poverty History

Campaign 2000

National Anti-Poverty Organization

Last but not least. Today is the day that we have chosen to come together as bloggers and voice the importance of the poverty issue all at once, but it doesn’t end there. Starting October 17th through the 19th, there will be events scheduled across the globe to Stand Up & Take Action Against Poverty and for the Millennium Development Goals. To find out if there will be an event near you visit the Stand Up & Take Action events map.

Currently there are 123 events registered in Canada, 12 events across Alberta and 2 of those events are right here in Calgary.

Don’t wait. Spread the word and let your voice make a difference in the fight to end poverty.

Yesterday Albertans were reminded that the switch to 10-digit dialing is fast approaching. It was back in 2004 when the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) brought to our attention that we were running out of available phone numbers under the 403 and 780 area codes, and as a result of Alberta’s rapid population growth in the last few years the province is having to implement a third area code (587).

Any new numbers in Alberta will now be given the 587 area code, regardless of where in Alberta you reside.

Starting yesterday, Albertans were receiving a prerecorded reminder when making local calls that said:

The local number you’ve dialed, must be preceded by its area code. Your call will now proceed. For future calls to this number, please dial the area code.

This recording is simply a message to remind us that we should be taking the necessary steps, now, to reprogram our cell phones and phone systems, prior to the mandatory 10-digital dialing taking effect on September 8, 2008. It’s going to take some getting use to, this 10- digit dialing system, so I will be reprogramming my phones now to save any hassles come September.

Alberta isn’t the only province having to switch to 10-digital dialing. British Columbia has also added another area code (778) and will be forced to 10-digital dialing on September 8th.

On a final note, I thought it important to also mention that all three digit dialing (211, 311, 411, 611, 811 and 911) in Alberta and British Columbia will remain the same.

Don’t wait until September to have your phones reprogrammed. Start now and prepare yourself for the switchover.

Photo by *hitetiger

I am excited to announce that this Friday, May 9th, 2008, I will be a guest on Real Estate Radio USA along side my colleague, and friend, Laura Monroe of Creative Agent Solutions.com .

We have been invited to discuss the nitty-gritty details about Real Estate Virtual Assistants (REVA’s) and how Real Estate Professionals, like yourselves, can benefit from partnering with a REVA.

We hope you will join us, with Barry Cunningham and Barry Johnson, on Friday, May 9th at 5:00 pm Eastern for a fun filled show answering all your burning questions about Real Estate Virtual Assistants. Laura and I are excited and honored to be a part of the first Real Estate Radio USA show featuring REVA’s as their guests.

See you Friday!

Viruses, blue screen of death and day after day of little quirks are finally behind me. In recent months, a friend of mine, Jeff Turner, President of Real Estate Shows, had encouraged me to “leave the dark side” and make the switch from my PC to a Mac.

I had been considering this switch for a while and had some concerns in doing so. First of all I am a creature of habit and a change this big was a little unsettling to me. I had always been a PC user and had never even tried a Mac before.

After numerous emails back and forth with Jeff, combined with my own extensive research, I came to the realization that making the move to a Mac could only enhance the way I work on the computer as the Mac had so much to offer. I knew however, that this would take a lot of commitment on my part to familiarize myself with all the new processes, but I was up for the challenge and extremely excited about it.

A second concern arose for me as I became aware that as a Real Estate Virtual Assistant I work with a number of programs that are not Mac compatible. This was ultimately going to be the deciding factor for me and whether or not to make the switch. I was pleased to find out that there was an easy way to overcome this obstacle. I was introduced to a program called Parallels Desktop 3.0 that allows you to run Windows (Linux and more) side-by-side on the Mac. This was the answer I was looking for. I could now run all the non Mac compatible real estate programs simultaneously via Parallels Desktop 3.0.

I should also mention that the new Mac OS X Leopard comes with a program called Bootcamp that will allow you to do the same thing, however it is not without its limitations (for me). With the Bootcamp program you are forced to shut down the Mac system and reboot in Windows in order to use the Windows system. They can not be run side-by-side through Bootcamp. Although this would be a viable option for some people, I decided that spending the $89 CDN for Parallels Desktop 3.0 to run Mac and Windows simultaneously was well worth the investment to maintain a steady, uninterrupted flow of work.

So if you are a Realtor and have considered switching to a Mac, and have had the same concerns about running your real estate programs; know that there is a way.

I am happy to say that after months of research and sitting on the fence, I have officially left the dark side. I am now a “beginner” Mac user and the proud owner of a fabulous new iMac desktop system (Mac OS X Leopard).

In the coming weeks I am going to chronicle my experiences with my new Mac through tips, tricks and tutorials about the things I have learned (and am still learning) and how to make a seamless switch from a PC to a Mac.

If you are a new Mac user or are considering making the switch and have any specific tutorial suggestions, please let me know and I would be happy to try and work them in.

Stay tuned!

For those of you that have emailed me and commented with your best wishes for Cubby the bear, I wanted to thank you?and update you on what I have recently heard. For those of you that have not?been formally introduced to Cubby,?you might read my previous post about Cubby Thanksgiving Weekend 2007 and view?Cubby’s RES.

We spoke with our neighbours at Christina Lake this week and they have been keeping their eyes on Cubby for me as I can not be there. Betty informed us that Cubby is still there and feeding on the apple trees(hopefully this is instinct to bulk up before hibernating). Apparently Cubby hangs around our resort for a few days and then he ventures off for a couple of days, but then always returns. The last time he returned to the resort he wasn’t alone…Cubby had brought along another cub. I wish I was there to monitor and photograph them. I am so pleased to hear that Cubby is OK and it appears as though his natural instinct is kicking in and preparing himself for hibernation.

Betty also spoke with the local warden and there have been no reported bear killings since I left there in October. Phew…what a relief.

So Cubby appears to be fine for now and should be heading into hibernation in the next few weeks. If I hear anything else I will be sure to let you know.

Thanksgiving weekend was full of surprises and thanks to my friend, Sarah Girl Cooper and her creative use of RES (Real Estate Shows), I decided that this would be the perfect way to show you what it was that had such a profound affect on me while I was at our family cabin for the holiday weekend.

We were introduced to this bear cub the day after we arrived at the cabin. He was perched almost at the top of our neighbours apple tree. I was instantly drawn to this bear cub and my niece and I immediately named him Cubby. Evidently he had been in and out of this tree for a couple of days and did not seem to be too concerned with us.

I was concerned that where there is a bear cub, there is sure to a mother close by. Sadly this was not case. Apparently the mother and other cub had been shot and killed a few days earlier. I felt so bad for Cubby as we figured that he may have only been 6 to 8 months old. If this was the case, my first thought was how would he know how to hibernate and get through the winter? There had been a couple of residents that contacted Fish and Wildlife and they said that there was nothing they could do. They commented that if they were to come out, they would have to shoot the cub. I was beside myself. I thought there had to be someone, or organization, that could arrange to relocate this cub or something.

There were only a handful of people in our resort (as is usually the case this time of year) so it was generally pretty quiet and not too many people to bother the cub (except me). The next couple of days my niece and I would go and check on Cubby in the morning, at lunch and at supper time and each time taking a ton pictures. I loved this little cub and had no idea how to help it. I went back to the cabin one evening and sent a bunch of emails to various SPCA’s and wildlife organizations to see if there was something, someone could do.

I never like leaving our cabin as it is my home away from home and this time was no exception and even harder. I didn’t want to leave not knowing what was going to happen to Cubby. Anyway I am in a holding pattern as I have not been able to verify if he is still there, but I will continue to follow up.

Blog Action Day has finally arrived and I am happy to say that Calgary is a city committed to doing their part for the environment…Are You? There are many ways in which you can participate to help create a greener Calgary. It doesn’t take a lot of time once you make the decision to do your part. It could be overwhelming to make the change and try to do everything, so start small and pick a few things that you know won’t turn your life upside down. As you get use to doing one thing, you can add something else. Here is a list of a few basic things you can do to get started with making the “green” change.

• Bottle Recycling – Visit the Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation for a ton of recycling resources, a list of acceptable containers and bottle depot locations
• Stop Using Plastic Bags – Many of our local grocery stores now offer an alternative to plastic bags such as the ones below as offered at the Real Canadian Superstore and Sobey’s
• Composting in Calgary – The City of Calgary has put together an awesome brochure called Composting in Calgary about composting and how to get started. Clean Calgary Association offers composting workshops and City of Calgary subsidized compost bins for Calgarians wanting to start backyard composting.
• Leaf and Pumpkin Recycling- Fall is here and so are the leaves. Halloween is coming and that means pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns. For those of you that are not set up for composting, The City of Calgary is offering a FREE Leaf and Pumpkin Recycling Program. The program runs from September 22 to November 11, 2007. Visit here for a list of drop off locations.
• Other City of Calgary Recycling Programs
  Christmas Tree Mulching Program
  Organics Recycling
  Grasscycling

Now that you know what you can do help out it’s time to hear what the City is doing to help us to make Calgary a greener city. Some of you may already now this, but back in 2001, Calgary Transit joined forces with Enmax and Vision Quest Windelectric Inc. to launch Calgary’s first green energy project called Ride The Wind Program. The goal of this program was to see that one day, Calgary’s Light Rail Transit (LRT) would be powered by 100% green power. This power would be wind-generated electricity coming from the 12 windmills located in Southern Alberta.

The electricity supply partnership between the City of Calgary and Enmax doesn’t end there. Read Green Energy to see how a lot of the City’s operations will be powered by the wind.

Not only is today Blog Action Day, Canadians are celebrating Waste Reduction Week, from October 15th – 21st.

This is the week for communities, schools and businesses to take part in a Canada wide event to educate and bring awareness to Canadians about waste minimization and conservation initiatives. Visit the Waste Reduction Weekwebsite to learn more about how to get involved. The Waste Reduction Week website also provides some great resources and ideas geared specifically to schools, businesses and municipalities and their involvement. Also check out the 2007 Events page to see who is already registered in your area to participate.

This is an extremely sensitive topic for some and I could go on forever about this, but my goal here was to provide some “basic” information and little background into the efforts Calgary is making to do their part for the environment and the people who live here. I love this city and I am proud to be a Calgarian. It is impossible for an individual or even a city to do it all, but if we work together, and give our best effort to do what we can, I believe it will make a difference.

It has been a pleasure to be a part of Blog Action Day and congratulate the organizers and bloggers that have worked endlessly to get the word out and organize this event.

THANK YOU!

I logged in to check my email one more time before heading to bed and to my surprise I received an email notifying me that my blog, The PREVA Report, has been Posh’d .

For those of you who are not familiar with Posh’d they are a site who, in their words support those of you trying to break the mold and make the real estate sites on the web a better experience for everyone.

I am honored to have been chosen among the likes of RSS Pieces, Bloodhound Blog, and Real Estate Tomato who were Posh’d recipients in May as well as sellsius and Miamism in July.

Thank you Posh’d.