Orders of the Day - Well, that was quite the First Week Back, wasn't it?

Having survived the first week back to regular parliamentary business, the House will spend Friday ensconced in the relative serenity of a Senate bill on the review of Canada's financial services, with what is likely to be a comparatively convivial conversation pausing only briefly for the traditional mid-morning Friday session of Question Period.

On the end-of-week good news circuit today: 

Environment Minister Peter Kent joins forces with his Alberta counterpart to make what the advisory bills as an "important announcement" on the promised oilsands monitoring plan at the University of Alberta Natural Resources Engineering Facility.

Public Works and Government Services Minister Rona Ambrose joins her parliamentary secretary Jacques Gourde for an "important announcement for Canadian entrepreneurs" at the NRC Research Library in Ottawa.

International Trade Minister Ed Fast heads to Morgan Solar in Toronto to share new details on support for "innovation commercialization" through the Kickstart Program, which also be touted at a satellite event in Kitchener at which local MP Peter Braid will serve as representative of the government. Fast is also set to host a pre-budget round table, at which he will provide an update on the state of Canada-European Union trade negotiations.

Also in Toronto today: Minister of State for Small Business Maxime Bernier, who will "deliver remarks" at a lunch hosted by the local board of trade.

Elsewhere in the 905verse, Minister of State for Seniors Alice Wong tours a local seniors home, and then treks to Cambridge, where she's set to give the keynote address at annual "Seniors' Information Session."

Meanwhile, in New Brunswick, ACOA Minister Bernard Valcourt attends the opening of a new college campus in Edmundston and makes "a major announcement" involving the "economic development of the Miramichi area," while in Newfoundland, Robert Goguen reveals new funding for services to victims of crime.

Back on the Hill, PMO associate communications director Andrew MacDougall convenes a briefing on the PM's upcoming trip to China.

Hitting the NDP leadership hustings today: Thomas Mulcair, who will "unveil important new endorsements" on a downtown Toronto street corner.

Finally, today's programming circle is complete, as Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae will also be heading to the University of Alberta -- to the Butterdome, in fact, where he will, as per the advisory, "participate in [an] attempt to break the world record for the largest dodge-ball tournament," as well as creating the ideal conditions for a corker of a photo caption contest.

Rae will also talk to students about "the importance of engaging in the political process," which, come to think of it, may be the ultimate game of dodge-ball.