Forever A Fangirl

We butchered a pumpkin tonight

I'd say the highlight of a not-at-all-bad weekend was early Friday night driving west to drop my eldest son, dressed as a Revolutionary-war guy, off at the train station to take the Amtrak to Western Illinois State Univ. ( Halloween party w/ gf who goes to school out there).

So there was a pleasant, unstressful ride with my eldest son and a truly awesome autumn sunset for the ride down. I was driving southwest, then due west and really got to enjoy it for an extra-long while.

Today the youngest had one of the now doubled-up choir practices. I chauffered, volunteered at Clearbrook, and chauffered some more. Yay. I think the director, a/k/a The Diva, plans on really working with (on?) this group of kids. I hear rumbles that the newbies don't seem to get it (even though they've been at it a while now) so she's whipping everyone into on shape.
This current group all (unless a kid chooses to quit) are going to be singing in St. Peter's Square during the Tuscany trip. :shrug:

Other good stuff: Chris made honour role in school (grade 8). Lots of really nice A's, a pair of B's, then a C+ in band because he's missed too many band practices and he was sick their first concert & missed it, too. Band decimated his otherwise high honour status. meh.

We butchered a pumpkin tonight (carved the jack o 'lantern).
Chris designs and does the glop extraction/ removing of the "guts," Roger executes the carving, and I snap the requisite pics.

Cheerio!

--Cyn

Stumped

October 25, 2005
Lost in the Woods

NYTimes.com Op-Ed

By LAWRENCE HERMAN and GARY HUFBAUER

AS Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice continues her talks in Ottawa today, she may find that the most acrimonious disagreement between Canada and the United States is not a question of hard power - issues like Afghanistan, Iraq and nuclear nonproliferation - but of softwood. A quarter-century-old dispute over Canadian lumber exports, which Washington claims are unfairly subsidized, has escalated to the point where it now threatens broader relations between the two countries.

If it remains unresolved, the softwood war might also spill over into the December ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization, where Washington and Ottawa have long worked together to expand free trade. What kind of example does it set for the rest of the world if the United States and Canada - close neighbors, each other's largest trading partner and crucial allies - cannot resolve their own trade disputes?

American and Canadian lawyers, lobbyists and negotiators have been fighting on and off over Canadian lumber exports to the United States since the 1980's. In 1982, a coalition of 250 American lumber mills claimed that Canadian provinces were subsidizing lumber exports by charging set "stumpage fees" - the price forest companies paid when harvesting standing timber - while American mills were paying open market prices. While the fight over things like stumpage fees is complex enough, it got a sharp twist in 2000 when Congress passed an amendment giving American companies injured by foreign trade the punitive duties imposed by the United States, which in the case of Canadian lumber exports now amount to about $5 billion.

Never mind that the right of the United States to impose such duties is in dispute, or that the W.T.O. declared the Byrd amendment (named after its creator, Senator Robert C. Byrd) illegal. American and Canadian officials now face two lumber disputes: the old one about timber management practices; and the new one about who owns the money held by the Treasury. Making things uglier are conflicting decisions by a panel convened under the North American Free Trade Agreement and by the W.T.O., with the United States claiming that favorable rulings by the latter trump adverse rulings by the former.

Canadians, including the normally friendly Canadian business community, are particularly outraged that Washington has rejected the Nafta panel decision. In Canadian eyes, this refusal by the United States betrays the central deal that underpinned Nafta in the first place: Canada allowed unfettered access to its energy resources and an end to restrictions on American investment in return for a binding method of settling disputes. As Prime Minister Paul Martin made clear recently, the dispute is coloring everything from the oil and gas trade (*Canada is the largest foreign supplier of energy to the United States) to cooperation in the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

If Canada and the United States cannot bring their common heritage and collective ingenuity to resolve the lumber dispute, little hope remains for commercial differences in other areas, or in other parts of the world. With this in mind, we have two suggestions, one to dispose of the $5 billion pot held by the American Treasury, the other to bridge the ancient battle over lumber exports.

First, the $5 billion. We recommend that a bilateral trust should administer the funds for the benefit of the North American industry as a whole. Representatives of Canadian and American lumber companies, and the two governments, would manage the trust. Possible projects: scientific research, pest control, forest fire control and re-structuring assistance, especially for smaller mills.

Second, we believe that President Bush and Prime Minister Martin should each appoint a special envoy with the authority to negotiate a final and durable compromise by a date certain, say June 2006. The idea is to elevate the issue to the highest level, removing it from the present negotiating framework where vested interests exercise far too much influence. We have in mind envoys of the stature of James Baker from the United States and Derek Burney from Canada, who brokered the original Canada-United States free trade deal in the 1980's.

These envoys would be charged with specific instructions: agree on limits on the Canadian share of the American lumber market that would gradually expand over time; settle the terms for market-based adjustments to the Canadian stumpage system while making provisions for the environment; and hammer out the details for managing the $5 billion pot. As part of the package, all legal actions would be halted.

The two heads of government should commit in advance to backing whatever agreement their envoys reach within these overall terms. The grand bargain that was Nafta would be returned to pride of place in our relations. Not only would this restore confidence in the strength of the North American partnership, it would strengthen both countries' efforts to promote free trade worldwide.

Lawrence Herman is a lawyer in Toronto. Gary Hufbauer is a senior fellow with the Institute for International Economics in Washington.

*Why do so few Americans know this fact? I think it's because they buy wholesale the oft-repeated statement that Middle-eastern countries supply most of the USA's energy. This is patently untrue. (Just ask the ever-increasingly wealthy province of Alberta, Canada--home to vast petrol reserves.) For the record, more than half of the United State's energy supplies come from Canada and Mexico. Americans are often chastised for their lack of knowledge of world history, but could they at least get the present tense right?--Cyn

Putting on "sunshine smiles" at Goebbert's Pumpkin Farm

Cyn City Goebbert's Pumpkin Farm album

My son took this.

Not a delicate flower...
though I do love the sight of a bunch of wild sunflowers.

Pumpkin Farm

We had some much-needed family time at our annual pumpkin farm/corn maze/haunted house/feed the exotic animals/pick out funky gourds/sample-all-things-apple-fest as well as at an impromptu "nice" dinner out afterward.

After a full week down & out I think my son is on the mend.
I'm pretty good. It's seems the adult version of this flu pales in comparison to the kid kind. It sucks royally to watch your child in pain so I really hope this thing has run it's course. :fingers crossed:

Wacky pix from the pumpkin farm to follow.

Cheers!

--Cyn

Fluey

Wed Oct 19, 2005 4:43 pm   :
:crawls onto computer chair: After five days spent with a sick child...I'm sick. EDIT/ 2:30 p.m. Central, Thursday. Chris relapsed at school and they sent him home. I'm not as sick as him thankfully, but I'm still "fluey"--achey, a monster of a headache that pain relievers barely touch, and sapped of energy. The school nurse says a flu is going 'round. I think we are among the first to catch it. In that respect, I'd rather just get it over with. I'm going to drag my sorry carcass off to Clearbrook as my older son is running the store on his own this week w/ his boss taking a load of vacation days before she loses them. It's pretty tense there when she's there anyway. Almost everyone is tired of her yelling. She's (no offence) a typical loud Bronx, NY -type and the laid back types just don't cotton to what she considers a normal way of speaking. She's talking to my son of quitting and he thinks I should apply if she does, but there's no way I have the patience to deal with the customers. They want everything for nothing and the stuff--some of it brand new, other stuff better than I could ever buy new, is priced very low already. I could absolutely deal with the clinically mentally retarded workers there. They are a piece of cake compared to most of the public at large. So... a pretty negative post. Lessee, anything good going on...nope. Have a good one! --Cyn

What Famous Leader Are You?

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

The Weekend

Hello All and Happy Monday!

The weekend plans were again changed--this time because my youngest son became ill. 
So I got lots of housework done. 

On the more news about our house front, spouse seems to have really picked up the ball and is currently painting and then installing storage shelves in a hall utility closet. Our biggest problem with this place by far is lack of storage space and we never really addressed it as we had in our minds that we would move before my youngest started high school. Those plans were altered as it became apparent that we shouldn't fool with what is working quite well for our son (plus we need a very fuel economic car for what would become the 1.5 hour daily round-trip commute--we currently live across the street from my spouse's workplace).
Chris's taking two AP (advanced placement) courses in order to transfer into second year courses next year at high school kind of brought that notion home. He also decided to "blossom"--he's growing like a weed, losing quite a bit of pudginess and now alludes sometimes to girls :gasp: when he speaks of school interactions.
I had a real hate on for the much-vaunted local high school despite the fact that they've appeared in national lists of best high schools in the country for many years. They dropped the ball with my first son (who dropped out in grade 10) but essentially this son is one of their favourite types to have enrolled. Smart and/or sporty kids seem to get the best ride at this school--so anyway we are taking it on a year by year basis because my dislike of sprawling suburbia hasn't ebbed. In the meantime, we are giving the house (a two story condo) a facelift and adding things to make living here more pleasant. Everything is sooo expensive though ($80 for a bathroom fan!) so it'll be bit by bit. Maybe this is for the best as we'll end up with a home better suited to our needs and that will be more marketable when that day comes. We will however be under a perpetual state of construction.

And now Tuscany. Realistically, there's no way we will cover all the countries I listed. If we get to one German-speaking country it'll be fine. I just wanted to give my son (who will be going into his third year of German by then) a chance to use the language outside of the classroom. Fortunately, the choral group will be in the Tuscany area for a full eight days and we can come and go with the additional time we stay on with Chris after the group heads home (actually, some of the group--lots of families end up staying on after the group does a trip like this). I just hope the price of airline tickets isn't insane by then.
I got a rude surprise when an additional $40 was tacked onto my San Fran
ticket months after I had paid for it. It's in the fine print so they can do it.


Since I "retired" my life seems pretty wrapped up in my son's and it is in that I have the luxury of time to give that I wouldn't otherwise. Adding in that his choral group leaders really push the "family" thing (and fundrasing) and that since grade three we've been reminded by the schools time and again that one must put more energy into a gifted student's scholastics (I disagree w/that-- I think it goes across the board--you chose to be a parent--you help your kid where needed). I do put a lot of time in but I enjoy it though I am itching to find another outlet for me--if I can find the time.    We'll see.
And right now it's off to Clearbrook to put in some volunteer time.
Have a great day !!!

Dreams Realized

Well, I'm gonna be selling and selling and selling some more (candy) as my son Chris and the choral gang are going to ....TUSCANY!
Holy crap, I am soooo stoked.
I've kind of done most everything in my life on a turned around time-line. There have been so many "dreams" I've had-- and they mostly involve going to parts of the world previously unknown to me. Hawaii this summer past was one. Setting my kid up to fall in love with Disneyland was another.   (I am steadily checking off the list.)
Tuscany is near Rome and the kids will go on excursions to Florence, Pisa, etc. They are performing in several places too, including a mass in St. Peter's Basilica (!)
The very cool thing about that part of the world IMO, is that one can travel to a number of countires w/in one trip.
So whilst my son "tours" with his fellow singers (from around the world), spouse and I are going to go to Greece, a place that I've been awestruck by since I was about 13 y.o. when I first saw slides of it that a young Canadian friend showed me after she went on a school trip to there.
Later, we'll join up with Chris's group as they near the end of their tour. This time though we'll stay on and do what Chris and I have promised to do if given the chance--(see some more of Italy then) visit the countries where he can speak his first foreign language--Germany, Switzerland, & Austria. Of course, this is added incentive for Chris to continue learning German but it comes effortlessly to him, so he really needed no extra push.
This is so exciting that I could burst and it's too early yet--the tour is July 2007--to start worrying about about paying for it.

Which Dysfunctional Care Bear Are You?

Stoner Bear Which Dysfunctional Care Bear Are You? brought to you by Quizilla

Yoko Pans Paul at Q Awards

From Yahoo.com: "Yoko Ono News":

http://music.yahoo.com/read/news/24596028

Just being the widow of John Lennon puts the otherwise not very sympathetic Yoko Ono miles above the egotripping-est codger in the universe, Paul McCartney.

In case the link is dodgy:

Yoko Pans Paul at Q Awards

10/10/2005 7:24 PM, E! Online
Charlie Amter

So much for giving peace a chance.

In the latest chapter of their ongoing feud, Yoko Ono dissed Paul McCartney's songwriting prowess Monday at Britain's Q Awards.

On hand to collect the Q Special Award honoring late husband John Lennon (on the day after what would have been his 65th birthday) at the annual ceremony in London, analogous to the American Music Awards, Ono took the opportunity to disparage his former Beatle mate.

Ono, 72, recalled how insecure Lennon was as an artist. "'Why do they cover Paul's songs but never mine?' " she told the audience of U.K. music stars and record company execs.

"I said, 'You're a good songwriter. It's not just 'June with spoon' that you write. You're a good singer, and most musicians are probably a little bit nervous about covering your songs.' "

The Ono-McCartney feuding goes back to the late 1960s, when he suggested that she was behind the Beatles breakup. Over the years their relationship has remained dysfunctional. Ono said she was "hurt" when McCartney failed to invite her to the memorial service of his late wife, Linda. Most recently, Ono threatened legal action after McCartney reversed the traditional "Lennon-McCartney" songwriting credit on his 2002 Back in the U.S.

But Ono's player-hating only seemed to extend to McCartney. When it came to the Q Awards big winner, Oasis, she congratulated the Beatles-inspired band. "I wish [John] was here today, he would have loved it," she said.

Oasis won Best Album for Don't Believe The Truth and the People's Choice prize.

Upon accepting the award for Best Album, Noel Gallagher said, "It was a change to not get the token Live Act award for being able to play the guitar...Best Album, nice one."

The band that did win Best Live Act was U2.

Meanwhile, two of Oasis' archrivals also picked up trophies. Coldplay was named Best Act in the World and Blur frontman Damon Albarn's received Best Producer props for his work with Danger Mouse on the Gorillaz's Demon Days. Gorillaz also won Best Video for "Feel Good Inc."

Other top winners included U.K. folk rocker James Blunt (Best New Act), Scottish singer K.T. Tunstall (Best Track for "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree") the Bee Gees (Lifetime Achievement ), Jimmy Page (Icon) and Joy Division (Legend), Bjork (Inspiration), Nick Cave (Classic Songwriter) and the Kinks, whose "Waterloo Sunset" received the prize for Classic Song.

What I Really Think Of Serenity, the movie

Serenity the movie is almost as good as the series Firefly...and that's not faint praise.
The show was great...innovative, smart, funny--and had/has the the same trademark Joss Whedon touch as this ensemble piece.

When it first aired, I did not watch it because I didn't want to start watching a new show and I'm not usually a big fan of westerns, which it (incorrectly, it turned out) isn't. Then FOX (asshats) aired it out of sequence and cut it short after just eleven eps. (though all are available on disc).

Go see it or rent/buy the DVD in a couple months. It will fast disappear from the theatres having come in at 8th at the box office after a quite respectable initial 1st week 2nd place. This week it was shown in a crowded field of new films.

It needed to to do really well as we are about to get hit with the holiday and briefly, Halloween-type flicks as it most likely would not last far into that time.
Sadly, it may be hard to fine Serenity in just a week or so at your local multiplex.
Go see it now!  It's good. It's fun. There's a high body count. The whole story is really good science fiction set in (on) the space frontier 500 years from now.
The creator Joss Whedon, must have seen Star Trek which when first pitched by Gene Roddenberry was compared to "Wagon Train" (a teevee western), like a wagon train to the stars--so as a good friend was saying as he was heartly endorsing it, Serenity has a bit of the old west in it, too. Makes it kinda different (in a good way).

In the TV show Firefly, which this movie is based upon they swear profusely in a Chinese-sounding language. There's kind of an Asian/cowboy fusion thing going on throughout the show. It is after all, from the brilliant and twisted mind of Joss Whedon, so weird is cool. Then they switch to English. They toss in bits of Chinese in the film too, many times as funny curses or at least at an amusing time to curse. Go see it. You'll laugh. And be scared.
AND






SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!



REALLY



TRULY



BELIEVE






that our heroes

are about








to bite it.      
_________________

Been more'n a year since I had anything twixt my nethers didn't run on batteries! Kaylee Frye

QUOTATION OF THE DAY

QUOTATION OF THE DAY         
      "Harriet Miers will be the type of judge I said I would nominate: a good conservative judge."
  PRESIDENT BUSH


 

Going, going...gone

Last Sunday on the way to Grandma's house we were behind this guy for about 40 miles (on about 3 different hwys). He had very loud mufflers (more noticeable I'm sure because we had the top down on the Mustang on this sultry, looked like-it-may-rain-soon day).

Sandstone effect, cropping

Cropping, sandstone effect

The original (From a Mustang GT series)

 

Serenity Is The Best Movie Opening This Weekend

Howdy everybody and a happy Friday night to you. I am doing a most unusual thing for me on a Friday night by going out to see my bro-in-law's band at a place they're playing at for the first time. I guess it's a good gig as he's been pestering me via-email about going. Maybe he just knows how dull a life I lead and wants to give me a kick in the derriere. Anyhoo, spouse is going too, as he actually has a schedule that will allow that (wow). The rest of the weekend shall be a blur. Some little Fall fest-thingie that my son is performing at--his "pay" is a free pass to the festivities after they finish singing. Then, to the audition that I'm nervous for him about but he seems totally unfazed. Why do I keep forgetting that he is not me (nor his father, for that matter) and has his own way of dealing with life? Sunday, I'm going to try to be on my best behaviour after we travel up north to visit with the entire family on my son's and husband's side. With my spouse's okay I bought tickets that day to the 5:30 p.m. showing of the film Serenity so I guess we'll not stay more than a few hours--tolerable. Can't wait for the movie. I know it's a "cult" thing but I hope that lots of people go to opening weekend. The film, which sprang from an abruptly cancelled teevee show has been much like the little engine that could (I think I can, I think I can...). I guess rooting for the underdog is kinda fun, too. Have a great night/day! --Cyn