The unturkey Thanksgiving

One thing about taking time off work is the catching up you have to do when you get back. At least that's my excuse for not posting this previously.

The trip in question was to St. Andrews by the Sea, NB to visit Mike and the organic farming crew. Our delicious, vegan, organic Thanksgiving dinner consisted of wild rice, curried lentils, salad, beans, bread/potato stuffing, squash/carrot soup.We stayed at the beautiful, elegant Algonquin Hotel and golfed at the adjoining golf course with incredible ocean views on a sunny fall day.The crops were finished for the year and Mike and his helper cleared some of the plants. I think these had started life as radishes.We picked rose hips to make jelly, ate chocoate pancakes, fed the donkey, drove to Minister's Island when the tide was out, but the most exciting (apparently) was the arrival of the scythe.Go Mike! For more about the farm and the farmers visit the Bantry Bay Blog.

_blank must die

It's always the little things in life.

I visit a web site frequently (for my work) where every link you click opens a new browser window. By the end of my visit there I usually have 4 or 5 windows open. Annoying? You bet, especially when you've become accustomed to the ease and simplicity of tabbed browsing in Firefox (or even Safari!). Sure I can right click > open in new tab but it should be unneccessary.

I recently discovered a Firefox extension that will force the page to open in the same window and it's made me very happy. It's a two step process - first download and install Greasemonkey, then install "_blank must die". (Both of these downloads are extremely easy.) No more needless windows opening. (It's actually not the opening of the windows that I object to but the fact that I then have to go back and close them all - one by one.)

BTW - if you still aren't using Firefox there must be a really good reason.

My Planet

Frittering away time with photo manipulation. Just discovered this great site, PhotoJojo,which has lots of photo tips and projects. This one is titled How to Create Your Own Planets Using Your Panoramas.

I didn't have any panoramas so I used this skyline of Quebec City, highlighted by the Chateau Frontenac
to produce this 'planet':


I thought it was kinda cool!

Tooting my Flute

Here's a small sampling from my "flute player" collection. I have about 30 all together. The one on the left is my most recent one purchased in Quebec City and the little insect (?) on the right was one of my first about 20 years ago. I have bears, angels, soldiers, Donald Duck, Porky Pig, cats and metal sculptures. They are kind of difficult to find and I really only like the ones where the flute is played on the correct side. Occasionally I'll see one that has the flute on the opposite side to those above.

Pepper!

I know I should be posting some fabulous shots from our trip but I just wanted to show Mike what my green pepper plant was up to while I was away!

The basil (barely visible, just behind to the right) suffered severe dehydration, however. Not sure if there's much hope.

Bonjour mes amis!

Nous sommes dans Quebec et nous avons beacoup de fun! It's sort of like that trying to converse but somehow we manage to get our point across. The shop keepers practice their English and we practice our French. We ended up with a much bigger condo than anticipated after Marj found out that the original one had mysteriously been cancelled the day before we arrived. We now have 2 bedrooms and a full kitchen. We picked up Mike from New Brunswick yesterday and today toured Ile d'Orleans. We've also enjoyed the amazing waterfalls in the area, the fromageries and the boutiques. On the Ile we bought a large basket of luscious strawberries from a roadside vendor for $7. Way too cheap! Mike doesn't understand how they can make a living at that price. Okay they're probably heavily subsidized like all other conventional farmers in Canada (quote from Mike).

We'll head into old Quebec city again tomorrow and perhaps explore some more small towns and villages. Today we drove on the oldest road in Canada and had lunch at the oldest golf course in North America. Take that BC.

Come Fly With Us

Here's a file that will open in Google Earth so you can follow us on our trip to Quebec on July 1.
Our Trip to Quebec
Once it opens, click on the file, then click on the 'Play Tour' button. BTW the new version of GE is even better.

Kids Who Know Too Much

Remember the good old days when you tried to teach your kids what was good for them and what to avoid? Don't eat too much junk food, drink your milk, wear sunscreen. Somehow, that's all changed. Now they seem to know what's best for us. Vegetables without pesticides, pans without teflon and coke without aspartame - the tables have turned. Maybe, just maybe, we taught them too much. . .and too well!

Finding Google

Found this beside the printer at one of the schools where I work. If you need to find something on Google how do you find Google? Well, you can always search for it. Then you can print off the results. This might fall under the category of incorrectly assuming students know proper search techniques. I'd bet that half the students in elementary school think that Google has a tremendous amount of information and when you ask them about their internet sources they invariably answer Google. They're quite shocked when I tell them that Google actually has no information even if they do have almost 2 billion results when you search for Google.

It's Census Day in Canada

It's held every five years and, for the first time in several hundred years, it's now possible to do it online. And people such as Scott will be happy to know that it's even available to Linux users. Hard to believe that even StatsCan now recognizes open source operating systems! Woot (as Ariane might say)!

The Rest of the Story in Pictures

http://lynnfield.ca/newyork/

If you happen to get to New York I'd recommend both The Producers and Wicked - two great shows.

The City Sleeps

You'd be surprised how much quieter New York streets are at 3:45 am which is when we left the hotel for the airport. Traffic was down to 10-12 cars/minute passing by, only a few people walking down the street, in fact the check-in wasn't even open when we got to the airport!

Never imagined myself sleeping on the floor of an airport at 5:30 in the morning (that's for young guys travelling in Europe, right?) but have you ever actually tried sleeping on those airport seats? With the armrests, of course, they're designed to be sat in and with my backpack as a head rest the floor wasn't actually too bad. However, I've never actually been up for more than about 15 hours at a time in my life and by the time I landed in bed at 10:00 last night I'd been up for about 37 hours. Dozed on the floor, dozed on the plane, dozed on the next plane despite the incredible vibrations, dozed after I got home. But didn't sleep till 10.

Besides me, who else has performed at Carnegie? From opening night in 1891 when Tchaikovsky conducted, the Beatles in the 60s, and Bjork last fall to Monday night when the combined chorus sang with Imant Raminsh, every performer has shaped Carnegie to be what it is today.

The requisite dill pickles at an 'authentic' NY deli: Yummy!








The Lady from our cruise boat.









The lady made from Lego in the Toys R Us at Times Square:

The Big Apple

So far it's been a bit of a whirlwind but the big performance is still tonight. More pictures and posts when I get back but just to let you know the Producers is hilarious and Wicked .. is!

Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today . .

I'm going to be a part of, New York, New York. Sorry - just had to rub it in that I'm heading to the Big Apple on Friday morning. We don't arrive till quite late on Friday - by the time we get to the hotel it'll be close to midnight. We're staying at the Grand Hyatt, close to Grand Central Station. Rehearsals Saturday and Sunday at the hotel, dress rehearsal at Carnegie on Monday, performance Monday night. Right after the performance we board a cruise ship around the harbor, arriving back at the hotel at 1:30 am, shuttle bus leaves for the airport at 3:30 for the airport. YIKES!

We've got tickets for the Producers on Sat. night and hope to catch something on Sunday, maybe a museum or two and a bit of sightseeing. That's it.

Unless I find internet access you won't hear from me for a few days.

The Olympics on Google Earth

You can view the venues for the Olympics mapped on Google Earth - you can almost follow the skiers going down the mountains. You'll need the lastest version of G.Earth.

Across the Country

Well Mike has started on his new ad/venture in New Brunswick and we'll all be able to follow what's happening at Bantry Bay.

It's located just outside of St. Andrews-by-the-Sea in NB and we wish him well in his farming endeavours. I guess.