The Lesbian Outdoor Group will be hosting the first dance of the New Year! What a great way to start 2008 by meeting new and old friends while dancing the night away. Tickets are limited, first come first serve $10.00 in advance and $15.00 at the door, 8:00 pm. -1:00 am., Royal Canadian Legion, 330 Kent Street.  Tickets are available at Venus Envy, After Stonewall, mother tongue books and Wilde’s. For more information, contact the group by email at log_opale@yahoo.ca.

Join LIX Chick, Cindy Teevens, and turn your big vision into your big reality by developing your business for success.  Be led step-by-step through a strategy spreadsheet in a process that will rapidly develop your business from the market-up, connecting your action list with your vision and success.  9:30 - 4:30.  Stittsville.  For more information and registration, go to www.gobeyond.ca/businessbrainstorming.html. 

Join LIX Chick, Cindy Teevens, and learn to create and write stories that get published and read.  Become known as the expert you are, and get free publicity. 9:30 - 12:30. Stittsville.  For more information and registration, go to www.gobeyond.ca/storybrainstorming.html. 

Come out and join your queer sisters and brothers at Let's Dance Studio!  Paul is organizing another level 1 (beginner) class to add to the roster.  The new class will be taking place on Fridays at 7:00 pm. starting on January 25th.  In addition, there are a few spots left in the existing same-sex classes at varying skill levels.  The winter term for those groups begins on January 21st.  For more information, please call Paul Lafleur, Coordinator of Waltzing Out Same-sex Ballroom Dancing at (613) 231-2296 or email him at plaf@magma.ca..

Head on down to the Sandy Hill Arena to watch Ottawa's fabulous women's team as they play various teams in the Canadian Women's Hockey League.  The Capital Canucks are very fortunate to have Katie Weatherston playing forward on the team this year.  Katie is a member of the Canadian Olympic Women's Hockey Team.  Games start at 5:00 pm.  Admission is $5 for adults; $3 for children and seniors.  Dress warmly...it's bloody cold in the arena!  For more information about the league, go to www.cwhl.ca and for information about the Canucks, go to www.sport.ca/ottawacapitalcanucks.

Ottawa's Gay & Lesbian Community Theatre group mounts its latest production at Artscourt, 2 Daly Street.  'Jigsaw Confessions' was written by David Lohrey and directed by Jim McNabb.  It's the story of a young man, Dennis, who is dealing with the death of his father who was gay.  Dennis' fiancée and his father's male lover help him deal with his grief.  Tickets are $20 and are available at After Stonewall, at Artscourt and online at www.tototoo.ca.   

The Ottawa Children's Aid Society is actively recruiting adoptive and foster parents in the LGBT community.  They hold two information sessions a month.  The first Thursday of every month is for LGBT people interested in adoption.  The last Thursday of the month is for those interested in fostering.  Sessions take place at the CAS offices, 1602 Telesat Court, Gloucester from 7:00 - 9:00 pm.   If you're interested in attending, please RSVP to Anik at (613) 747-7800 x2857.

Meetings are held at Swizzles at 246B Queen Street (below the Green Papaya...entrance on the west side of the building) from 7:00 - 9:00 pm.  You don't have to be self-employed and/or promoting a business to attend...at least half of the gals come to check out lesbian businesses and to socialize.  If you have any interest in presenting a five-minute infomercial about your business at one of the networking meetings, please contact us at info@girlswanttoknow.com.

The Outstuff gals present their annual Valentine's dance at the Panorama Room of the National Arts Centre. Join hundreds of women at this beautiful venue and dance the night away.  Couples and singles mingle from 9 pm to 1 am.  Tickets available at mother tongue books and Venus Envy.  $15.00 in advance and $20.00 at the door. For more information go to the web site at www.outstuff.ca.

Join the Herb Girls at their "Love is in the Air" celebration.  The Carleton Tavern, 223 Armstrong St. (by the Parkdale Market).  Noon - 3:00 pm.  Cost is $5 per person; $10-$20 per family (sliding scale).  The Herb Girls ask that you dress up as someone or something that you love.  For information, contact herbgirls@rogers.com.

"Inside Boystown is an intimate portrait of the lives of six male prostitutes who work the streets in Vancouver's chic Yaletown district. It blends interviews with the boys with commentary from three support workers who explain the dynamics of male street prostitution: Paul Harris, a street nurse who specializes in working with high risk youth, Sandy Cooke, the executive director of Covenant House Vancouver and Christopher Graham, the director of the Ministry of Children and Families Safe House and Detox programs. The film provides an honest and forthright look at a commonly hidden aspect of contemporary society."  Presented with the AIDS Committee of Ottawa.  Doors open at 7:00 pm; movie starts at 7:30.  FREE admission; $5 suggested donation.  Snacks for sale.  Club SAW, 67 Nicholas Street.  For more information, visit the web site at http://DivergenceMovieNight.com.

 'Come Back To Your Senses' with Reiki Master Leah Smith.  During this 2 day workshop you will have the opportunity to create the foundation for Reiki as a daily self-care practice, discover a relationship with healing energy, explore easy to follow precepts for mental discipline, practice hand positions for relaxation, learn how to treat acute and chronic conditions in yourself and others, and how to apply Reiki for First Aid.  Tuition is $150.00, review students $75.00.  Payment plans and a sliding scale are available.  For more information contact Leah at (613) 266-0544 or leahs@cyberus.ca.

The New Bayou, 1077 Bank Street at Sunnyside (across from The Mayfair), 9:00 pm.  $8.00 per person at the door.  For information, contact herbgirls@rogers.com or call The New Bayou at (613) 523-5299.

Does God really condemn loving homosexual relationships? Is the chasm separating Christianity from gays and lesbians too wide to cross? Is the Bible an excuse to hate? These questions and more are answered in this award-winning documentary, which brilliantly reconciles homosexuality and Biblical scripture - and reveals that religious anti-gay bias is based almost solely upon a misinterpretation of the Bible.  Through the experiences of five very normal, Christian, American families - including those of former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt and Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson - we discover how people of faith handle the realization of having a gay child or family member. Offering healing, clarity and understanding to anyone caught in the crosshairs of scripture and sexual identity, this landmark film "boldly takes on a loaded topic and examines it both intellectually and emotionally; the result may well leave you blinking away a few tears."  Bytowne Cinema.  Monday at 7:00; Tuesday at 9:05.  For more information, check out the web site at www.forthebibletellsmeso.org/indexc.htm.  To reach the Bytowne Cinema online, go to www.bytowne.ca.

The gals who are organizing the sexy, raunchy and sensational 4th annual Heart-On Burlesque Show are looking for an assortment of acts such as: skits, literary readings, comedy, singing, drama, spoken word, drag, vaudeville fun, strip-tease, silliness, seriousness and more.  This year the show will feature two seductive evenings of Burlesque style entertainment for women...April 11th and 12th.  The show takes place at SAW Gallery and features our own LIX Chick, Karen Munro-Caple, as Mistress of Ceremonies.  If you're interested in performing, send an email with your contact information and a quick description of your act to heartonburlesque@gmail.com.  Proceeds from this year's show will go to The Sexual Assault Support Centre of Ottawa and to SAW Gallery.

Registration is now open.   Are you ready to lace up your bowling shoes?  Have you been practising your adventure bowl since 2007?  It's now time to book your lane for this fundraiser extraordinaire!  This year the event is moving to a larger location, Walkley Bowling Centre, where all the bowlers can lace up their shoes and get their bowl on at the same time from 6:00 pm. - 9:00 pm.  That's right, 30 lanes of bowling madness, including prizes, costumes, adventure bowling and spirit - all with the goal of sending kids to Camp Ten Oaks - and having a little fun along the way!  Form a team.  Raise funds.  Send kids to Camp Ten Oaks.  It currently costs $600 a week to send a kid to camp.  This year's Bowl-A-Thon fundraising target is set for $22,000.  Help make it happen.  Check out the web site to find out how you can book a lane, raise pledges and win fantastic prizes!  www.tenoaksproject.org/main/bowlathon.aspx.  If you're not planning to bowl yourself, help the LIX Chicks team defend our title as highest fundraisers! To pledge for our team, contact Lucy at info@girlswanttoknow.com.

We are thrilled to have writer/storyteller, Ivan E. Coyote, as our guest speaker at the third annual LIX dinner/speaker meeting.  The Pantry, 175 Third Avenue in the Glebe Community Centre.  Please be there at 6:00 pm. to pick your table and visit with other LIX members.  Dinner will be served at 6:30 followed by dessert and Ivan!  There are only six seats left for this event.

"Stand Together is the first comprehensive documentary on the gay liberation movement in Ontario, Canada.  It draws together a rich body of documents, images and rarely seen archival footage with dramatizations and interviews, to bring to life a story of justice denied and victories won, outrage and humour, celebration and humanity.  From the National Security Campaigns in the 1960s (when the RCMP investigated thousands of lesbians and gays working in the public service in Canada), to the Criminal Code Amendments decriminalizing homosexual acts between two consenting adults in 1969.  From the 1981 bath raids in Toronto (when 286 men were arrested in raids on four gay baths, the largest mass arrest in Canadian history since the War Measure Act in Quebec) to the 1986 vote to include 'sexual orientation' as a prohibited ground of discrimination in the Ontario Human Right Code." This documentary features our own LIX Chick, Marie Robertson!  Doors open at 7:00 pm; movie starts at 7:30.  FREE admission; $5 suggested donation.  Snacks for sale.  Club SAW, 67 Nicholas Street.  For more information, visit the web site at http://DivergenceMovieNight.com.

Join LIX Chick, Karen Molson, and her partner Joanie in their fifth Paradise Found lecture.  "Love of the Labyrinth" is about the vast and quirky history of, and present-day resurgence of interest in, labyrinths and mazes.  Twin-prop plane rides and drifting in hot air balloons has added to the excitement of trying to capture on film some of what they will show you, and references ranging from Herodotus to Carol Shields will help enlighten the imagery.  Centrepointe Theatre.  Doors open at 6:30, show starts at 7:00 pm.  Tickets are $50 +GST and are available at Centrepointe by calling (613) 580-2700 or on-line at www.centrepointetheatre.com.  For more information about Paradise Found, go to www.paradisefoundlectures.ca.

The "Keep it Simple" group of Al-Anon meets every Sunday evening at 7:30 pm. at the Jack Purcell Community Centre on Elgin Street.  Millions of people are affected by the excessive drinking of someone close to them.  If you fall into this category and are looking for a safe GLBTQ space to get help and support, this meeting is for you.  For more information call (613) 860-3431 or go to the web site at www.al-anon.alateen.on.ca.

... is an Ottawa-based women's literary fundraising magazine...that will donate its proceeds back into various events and charities in the community.  The creators are looking for interested subscribers as well as women who wish to submit writing, photography or artwork for upcoming issues.  The yearly subscription rate is $18.  Find details on advertising, sponsorship, subscriptions, submitting work and more at www.mwdesign.ca/TheVoice.

... takes place on the first Sunday of each month at the Church of the Ascension, 253 Echo Drive, Ottawa at 7:00 pm.   Integrity Ottawa is a gathering of gay men, lesbians and straight friends living in the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa.  They are interested in supporting the lives of LGBTTQ people in the Anglican Church of Canada and abroad in the wider Anglican Communion.  For more information, check out: www.ottawa.integritycanada.org.

... regularly holds workshops of interest to women.  To see what's happening, check out the web site at www.venusenvy.ca.  Venus Envy is located at 320 Lisgar Street.