test blog #10

Mkk, who may be Canada-bound herself, set her alarm, set up a tripod, and took this great photo. She was going for the zero second count, but we both agree this is better: it has the element of suspense. Thanks, Marcie!

Did anyone catch Redsock on TV ? Just wondering. Several of our friends and family saw it, so we'll get a tape.

This post now has photos.

Thank you for the champagne! We drank it last night, toasting to our arrival. It had that extra we-move-to-canada flair.

Blogger's photo thing isn't working. I'll try to post those picture tomorrow. Meanwhile, some first impressions. The house is great . It's both bigger and nicer than I remembered. But what turns great to amazingly brilliant is this neighborhood. Last night, after we walked through the house and looked at the yard, we leashed up the dogs and walked down to the Lake. That is, we walked a few steps down our road to the Lake. Our street literally ends at Lake Ontario. We walked along the waterfront bike trail, and we were just knocked out. There is pristine landscaping, and fat geese waddling by, and waves crashing, and an expanse of water and sky, and it is just too beautiful to be steps away from where I live. I can't get over it. I feel so fortunate. After unpacking the van, we walked in the other direction, to Port Credit's main drag, and were again just bowled over. The town is exactly as I remembered it: a town. A real town. We're in easy walking distance ...

Thank you all so much for your welcomes and congratulations. It was really exciting to download my mail and see them all. I'll backtrack a bit, probably make this a few separate posts. Our final day in New York was busy and exhausting. The last-minute errands mushroomed, but we managed to get everything accomplished, and even worked in an afternoon tea break with the wonderful Alan With One L, and a visit with my mom. Saying goodbye to her, I was suddenly 10-years-old again. It was visiting day in summer camp. I felt homesick . But that's fine. My mother and I have already picked out a date for her first visit. After a late night of preparations, we were up at 5:00 a.m., naively thinking we'd be on the road by 6. Ha! It took Allan - The Master Packer - nearly two hours to pack the van. I certainly never could have done it. There was just about enough room for the dogs, Buster between our seats in the front, and Cody in a cave of boxes in the back. We drove The World's F...

We are here!! We are here. We are happy. And, as you can see, we are online. Thank you all for your good wishes. It was really cool to log in and find them. I'll write more soon, including some photos.

When I hear that robin sing Well I know it's coming on spring Ooo-we and we're starting a new life I've been shovelling the snow away Working hard for my pay All I gotta say is we're starting a new life Van Morrison, Starting A New Life . Not much of a song to read, but very nice to hear. I've spent my life following things I cannot see And just when I catch up to them, they slip away from me I've been down a thousand trails I've never walked before I found out that without fail, they lead me to your door And the world keeps turning round and round It leaves me hanging in the air My heart keeps turning upside down And you're still standin' there Steve Earle, You're Still Standing There . For my partner. I love you.

In a few minutes, I will disconnect the cable modem. Allan and I will go pick up our rental mini-van. We'll drive around the city doing last-minute errands, like dropping off a gift for our dogwalker, buying food for tomorrow's drive, and bringing my plants to (and saying goodbye to!) my mom. We'll spend one more night in our bare apartment. Tomorrow morning we'll pack up the van, and two insanely happy dogs will pounce into the back seat. They'll think they're going on vacation upstate. We'll say goodbye to Bennett Avenue, and drive over the George Washington Bridge. I'll no doubt be in tears. We'll briefly drive through New Jersey to Rockland County (where I grew up), head north through the Catskills to Albany, then west to Buffalo, on to the border, the QEW, and our new home. How am I feeling, you ask? Like a bundle of nerves. Like a family of butterflies is building a city in my stomach. Like I'm ready to burst into tears at a moment's no...

I thought you might like to see the view from where I no longer work . (Yay!) Empire State Building Lady Liberty in the distance St. Patrick's Cathedral from the 44th Floor Met Life (Pan Am) Building, with the Chrysler Building peeking around the corner A piece of Central Park, with the George Washington Bridge in the far distance. We live right near that bridge. Good night.

I almost forgot! Well, actually, I did forget, but Allan reminded me. If you get ESPN Classic, you can see Sir Redsock on TV tomorrow night (Monday, August 29), holding forth on a subject he knows more about than almost anyone else on the planet. Our cable will already be turned off, so we're hoping someone will tape it or DVR it for us. But regardless of that, if you get the channel, tune in. Here's something about the show.

More Americans going to Canada ! But not yet. They're just considering it. Yeah, right.

From prolific commenter Wrye, who is threatening to start blogging again, but for now has no link... In the interest of regional balance, having heard from Edmonton, let us now hear from Montreal: Radio Free Vestibule--I Don't Want to go to Toronto: (I don't want to go to Toronto, I don't want to go...) I don't want to go to Toronto, I don't want to go All of the blocks are square, None of the streets are twisted; None of the streets are paved with bricks; There's too many elevators in Toronto-- Not enough stairs in Toronto Not enough stairs! (I don't want to go to Toronto, I don't want to go...) All of the food in Toronto is made of edible oil products They don't have bagels in Toronto They have doughnuts, Doughnuts made of edible oil! I don't like doughnuts, They don't have bagels! (I don't want to go to Toronto, I don't want to go...) I don't want to go to Toronto! People don't have faces in Toronto They have cigarette ads,...

Today and tomorrow are my last days on my day job. More importantly, they are my last days on any day job for a while. I anticipate writing full-time for - who knows - maybe six months, maybe a full year, maybe longer. It will be the first time either Allan or I have been able to write full-time. Not because we were trying without success: it was never a goal. Neither of us ever pursued a staff job with a magazine or newspaper, and freelancing full-time wasn't realistic. We both have very specific and somewhat idiosyncratic writing goals. When those goals also pull in some income, all the better. When they don't, we write anyway. Our ongoing goal - my goal, which I instilled in Allan - was to jockey our way into better and better day-jobs, decreasing the number of hours we had to spend working for money, and increasing the time we could spend writing or researching our own interests. We met this goal beautifully. For a long time our day jobs have been 24 hours per week, squee...

And getting more so all the time. In comments here , I told Lone Primate that the prospect of actually taking off - of leaving the country of my birth for another country - feels surreal. I imagine on Tuesday, as we drive north through my beloved New York State, one-way , it will feel even more so. The very astute Lone Primate expressed it perfectly here. You know, in a weird way, I bet you'd have a more concrete sense of it if you were moving to a country like Japan or India, instead of to what amounts to some Twilight Zone version of the US where the American Revolution never happened and the Queen is still on the money (dun-dun-DUHHHH!!!). Let's face it, you're making the least-profound international move possible for an American. :) There'll be some changes when you're actually here, but I speculate that the similarity of culture and daily life is going to drag out the process of it really setting in for a long time. That's very true. Leaving New York City ...

A ways back, Wrye said he was going to introduce me to "The Toronto Song". I googled around for it, but the only thing I found was this from Groucho Marx . Wrye never mentioned it again, and so I promptly forgot all about it. Wrye, apparently, did not. And he has at last ended the mystery , prompting some funny comments here . So, wmtc readers, I bring you... The Toronto Song. Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie’s The Toronto Song (1989 Version) I hate the Skydome And the CN tower too I hate Nathan Phillips Square and the Ontario Zoo The rent's too high The air's unclean The beaches are dirty And the people are mean, And the women are big And the men are dumb And the children are loopy 'cause they live in a slum The water is polluted and the mayor's a dork They dress real bad and they think they're New York In Toronto- Ontario-o-oh... (spoken) A: You know...I think I pretty much hate all of Ontario. B: Oh yeah…Me too. I hate Thunder Bay and Ottawa, Kitchener, Wi...

The plan: Today, Friday: movers take away 99% of our stuff. Saturday and Sunday: we go to work as if we have normal lives. Sunday night: we toast to unemployment. Monday: we pick up our one-way rental vehicle, and do last-minute errands. Tuesday: we move to Canada . * * * * Last blog post from US: Monday morning, before disconnecting cable modem. First blog post from Canada: with luck, Wednesday afternoon.

Commentmeister, friend of wmtc, and - who knew? - lyricist Lone Primate made my morning with this: Ha, you know, when I read the title of your posting, "life among the boxes", I was suddenly reminded of the Talking Heads song "Life During Wartime". If you look up the lyrics , they seem so appropriate to what you're about to do! Of course, that doesn't stop us having a little fun with them... :) Heard of a van that is loaded with boxes, packed up and ready to go Heard about Customs, out by the highway, a place where nobody knows The sound of yawning, off in the distance, Guess I’ll get used to it now Lived in New England, lived in the Boroughs, I've lived all over this town... Transmit the right forms to CIC now, hope for an answer some day They want our passports, to send us visas, They sure as hell know my name Here on the island, the trucks are loading, everything's ready to roll I blog in the daytime, I sleep in the nightime, Next week I’ll have ...

Hooray hooray hooray, I am happy happy happy! I spoke to our vet specialist last night. She is very pleased with Buster's progress, and feels we are really on the right track. Tonight we'll start transitioning him back to regular dog food, over the course of a week. If that goes well, we'll then lower the dose of Prednisone over two weeks, which will make our lives much easier. Extra-good news is that Dr. S is going to manage Buster's case long-distance. While she does want me to find another internist in the Toronto area, to check his blood levels in about a month, I'll continue to check in with her for managing his medication. I thought she was turning us over to a new doctor entirely, but in fact, she is not at all. What a relief! For specialty care, it looks like we'll be going to the University of Guelph Veterinary School. If any of you have experience with them, do let me know. They are supposed to be top-notch, as teaching hospitals are often up on all th...

All our tangible possessions are in boxes and bubble wrap. The movers are due at 8:00 a.m. By the end of the day, we will be in an empty apartment, with an air mattress, two small suitcases, some dog food and our computers. Packing went really well, at least I think so, because Allan did more than his fair share, while I made phone calls and organized stuff. And because we were able to focus on it almost full-time, rather than squeezing it around full-time jobs. I'll be babysitting the dogs while the movers work, which means I'll be at the computer all day, if you're up for chatting in comments.

Yesterday began with me accidentally giving Cody one of Buster's pills, and ended with our phone service being cut off. Fortunately everything in the middle was much less eventful. The pill. Buster needs so many pills in the morning, so I give them to him with pieces of chicken. So of course I give Cody chicken, too - and I absent-mindedly fed her a chunk of chicken with a pill in it. As soon as it left my hand I realized what I had done. I haven't been sleeping too well, and it's showing. I wasn't sure if one pill could hurt her, but I didn't want to worry about it all day. Dog-loving readers, if you ever need to induce vomiting in your pup, make them ingest some hydrogen peroxide, then wait. A remedy we learned when our little dog Clyde got into a bottle of Advil. The phone. Vonage mistakenly de-activated our router and charged us $99 for the privilege. In customer-service-speak, "the issue is currently unresolved," meaning I still have no phone. I had m...

Thanks to the London bombing, the MTA finally has an excuse to spend another $200 million of our own money to spy on us . Officials unveiled the high-tech future of transit security in New York City yesterday: an ambitious plan to saturate the subways with 1,000 video cameras and 3,000 motion sensors and to enable cellphone service in 277 underground stations - but not in moving trains - for the first time. Moving quickly after the subway and bus bombings in London last month, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority awarded a three-year, $212 million contract to a group of contractors led by the Lockheed Martin Corporation, which is best known for making military hardware like fighter planes, missiles and antitank systems. The authority abandoned its earlier reservations about cellphone service, agreeing that the benefits of allowing 911 and other calls during emergencies outweighed the costs and the risk of a phone-detonated bomb. It invited carriers to submit proposals by Oct. 12. ...

I'm late this morning because I was - ta-da! - making my last trip to the laundromat! Whoo-hoo!!! We are kicking butt on the packing, zooming right along. Check out that countdown. This time next week, I'll be making coffee in Port Credit.

Doonesbury strip, August 25, 1980. BD: I feel good today. Know why I feel good today? Mike: I'll bet we're going to find out. BD: I feel good because I woke up this morning and it suddenly hit me there's an excellent chance our next president is going to be Ronald Reagan! It's the beginning of a new age, gentlemen, it's a whole new ball game, you better make plans. Zonker: I already have. I've decided to shoot myself. Mike: Good choice. Hand guns should be cheap and plentiful.

That's AWOL without the without. As you can imagine, I have precious little spare time these days, and almost none to read your blogs. I've been catching up on weekends, where (for two more days) I am still paid to surf the net. After my weekend job ends (did I mention, two more days?!), I'll have to set aside some daily blog-reading time in order not to feel incredibly selfish. In any case, if anyone here doesn't read The Curmudgeonly Crab on a regular basis, go right now and read Crabletta's most recent post about Cindy Sheehan . I was probably the last of the wmtc crowd to see it. I'm always behind the times.

Local news: a small victory for common sense and free speech. In a tartly worded ruling, a federal judge ordered the Bloomberg administration yesterday to reinstate a permit for a block party in Chelsea featuring the painting of graffiti on mock subway cars. The judge, Jed S. Rakoff of Federal District Court in Manhattan, called the city's abrupt cancellation of the permit unconstitutional. He even poked fun at Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's argument that the party would incite the defacement of real subway cars. "By the same token, presumably, a street performance of 'Hamlet' would be tantamount to encouraging revenge murder," the judge wrote. "As for a street performance of 'Oedipus Rex,' " he added, "don't even think about it." The permit was issued to allow Ecko Unlimited, a company run by the designer Marc Ecko, to close West 22nd Street between 10th and 11th Avenues from 10 am. to 6 p.m. tomorrow. During the party, Mr. Ecko...

From The Progressive 's "McCarthyism Watch": Santorum's People Toss Young Women out of Barnes & Noble, Trooper Threatens Them with Prison . In the same issue, a profile of Tony Campolo , a Baptist minister, evangelist and radical activist. Campolo's critique of U.S. policies and culture leads him to some stark positions. "To be a Christian in today's world is to be opposed to America," he says. "Why? America believes in capital punishment, and Jesus says, 'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.' America says, 'Blessed are the rich.' Jesus said, 'Woe unto you who are rich, blessed are the poor.' America says, 'Blessed are the powerful.' Jesus said, 'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.'" Campolo doesn't just talk, he totally walks the walk. Jim Wallis of Sojourners says, Tony Campolo is my favorite evangelist. He blends revival with social justice. In that wa...

For those who can't get enough of Americans emigrating to Canada, Nick and Mason have a new address . In the latest entry to Life Without Borders , the elusive Mason makes an appearance!

Whoa. Thank goodness I decided to start researching auto insurance before we moved. I've learned that we'll need copies of our driving records from the New York State DMV. I had assumed (always a mistake!) that an Ontario insurance company could access that information themselves, but they cannot. Similar to credit ratings, there's an impenetrable international boundary. So it looks like we have an unexpected errand this week! Further proof of why you cannot leave things to the last minute - because new stuff always comes up.

This is amazing. I'm happy to get rid of stuff, I'm happy that perfectly usable things can continue to be useful and won't end up as landfill, and of course, people are always happy to get Free Things. Freecycle is even cool on an emotional or spiritual level. Generosity brings out the best in people. All the Freecyclers I've emailed with or spoken to so far have been so nice. Several of them just moved to New York, and maybe I've given them a good feeling about the city.

I gave Buster an injection! The B12 shots are weekly. Last week the vet (actually the vet eye doctor, since we had an appointment) demonstrated how to do it. So this morning was my first go. I was nervous, but it was a snap. Allan held Buster's head and talked to him, and B didn't seem to notice a thing. Not a yelp, not even a flinch. The doc thought the quantity of fluid - a full 10 cc's - might be an issue, but it wasn't at all. Now that I see it didn't hurt, I won't be afraid to do it next week. Thank you so much, James, Dogsled_Stacie and others who helped me get the confidence to do this! Back to the boxes.

My calendar for this week has one word written across the next four days: P - A - C - K . We got a lot done on Friday, and I'm confident we'll have a productive - sweaty, dusty, muscle-straining - week. I spent most of yesterday emailing with Freecyclers who want to take some old furniture and air-conditioners off my hands. You guys all know about Freecycle , right? I thought it was just an expression - I didn't realize it was an actual organization. I must be the last person to discover Freecycle, but then, I'm not big on acquiring other people's used goods. I am, however, very big on giving stuff away. Freecycle is like putting something on the curb for scavengers, but your whole town or city has a shot at it. Yet another fantastic use of the internet. In other news, the Stones rock Fenway! What a great place to see them. We saw them a couple of times at Shea Stadium, approximately the same size and type of venue*, and it was great. (I think those shows were numb...

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Pittsburgh Police Arrest Five Anti-War Protesters, Two Injured, in March 68-year-old woman bitten by police dog, other protestors pepper-sprayed and Tasered. Utah TV Station Refuses to Air Anti-War Ad Days Before Bush Visit TV Station owned by Mormon church refuses to show ad featuring Cindy Sheehan. Both AP stories that I found on Common Dreams. I don't have the original links.

"The feeling is so much worse than a broken heart. It is an evisceration. " Please read.

Paul Krugman has written a companion piece to Mark Crispin Miller's important article in Harper's. Krugman writes: By running for the U.S. Senate, Katherine Harris, Florida's former secretary of state, has stirred up some ugly memories. And that's a good thing, because those memories remain relevant. There was at least as much electoral malfeasance in 2004 as there was in 2000, even if it didn't change the outcome. And the next election may be worse. In his recent book "Steal This Vote" - a very judicious work, despite its title - Andrew Gumbel, a U.S. correspondent for the British newspaper The Independent, provides the best overview I've seen of the 2000 Florida vote. And he documents the simple truth: "Al Gore won the 2000 presidential election." Two different news media consortiums reviewed Florida's ballots; both found that a full manual recount would have given the election to Mr. Gore. This was true despite a host of efforts by s...

In a discussion in comments , I was directed to Atheist Exposed , a blog by S. Setterbo, a woman in Texas who was "coming out" as an atheist to her coworkers and others in her life. Setterbo lives in a highly Christian environment and felt it was a Big Thing to reveal this part of herself. Her stated goal: "to give these Christians the knowledge, that they know an Atheist, and she's not a bad person." Setterbo's fears were used as evidence of a lack of religious freedom in the US - and I find myself in the odd position of actually defending the US. Go figure. Try as I might, I can't see this woman as a victim of religious intolerance. There's no freedom from discomfort at being a minority, no guarantee of personal acceptance by those around you, nor should there be. I must clarify that Setterbo doesn't present herself as a persecuted victim at all. This is in response to others' comments about her, not her own words. I read elsewhere that she...

What do you guys think of this , now appearing on the title bars of all Blogger-based blogs? At first I thought it seems reasonable, as Blogger is not pulling blogs with "questionable content," and not taking any action based on one person's or even a handful of people's responses. However, why do we need that at all? Why does Blogger need to monitor and screen content? Please opine.

It looks like we'll be buying a car shortly after arriving in Canada. We weren't sure if we were going to lease, or how long we'd wait to buy, or what, but now we've decided. We're buying a new (as opposed to used) car very soon. Exciting! Not owning a car in New York City has served us well. Bringing a car from the US to Canada is an amazing pain in the butt, requiring an enormous amount of paperwork and rigmarole. We've got quite enough of that in our lives as it is, with more to come. If we did own a car, I think we'd have sold it and bought another one anyway. It seems much easier to buy a car in Canada than to "import" (the official term) one from the US. So, do any Ontario residents have any tips about auto insurance? How to get better rates, what to avoid, obscure laws we must know? I've checked out some basics here and here , but if you have any advice or pointers, I'd love to hear them. I know many of you aren't blogging on th...

The first issue of Kids On Wheels is out, and it looks great! This is the new magazine that I'm involved in, an offshoot of the KOW resource guide. I blogged about this most recently here and here . My assignments morphed while I was working on them - downhill racing got bumped, swimming with dolphins got promoted, and the fiction is being held out for the second issue, after I can write a new ending. Subscribers to KOW get two magazines bundled together. One is the kids' edition, which speaks directly to 8- to 12-year-olds. We quote kids as much as we can, and try to be a conduit for peer-to-peer sharing and discussion. The other edition is for parents of children who use wheelchairs, so it functions as an information guide and support network. If you know someone who could benefit from this, here's the link , spread the word.

The movers come one week from today! So, today we start packing. We're working all weekend, then we'll resume on Monday and throughout next week. Amazingly, I'm not dreading packing. It's a finite project with a clear deadline. By this time next week, it will all be done. Have a good Friday, everyone! I'll check in on breaks, so hopefully you won't see much of me today.

Thanks to David Cho , I've learned that the marketing genius behind the international embarrassment called "Freedom Fries" is sponsoring a resolution demanding W announce an Iraq exit strategy by the end of the year. North Carolina Republican Congressman Walter Jones says he has about 50 co-sponsors to the resolution. Jones said the reason for going to war — Saddam Hussein's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction — has been proven false. "If I had known then what I know now, I wouldn't have supported the resolution," said Jones, who had coined the term "freedom fries" as a show of support for the war in Iraq. He said that if numbers are accurate that between 75,000 and 100,000 Iraqis have been trained as soldiers and police, then it's approaching time for the country to start defending itself. Jones said he has sent letters to families of fallen troops. He's also met with family members of troops killed in Iraq, including wi...

Ted Rall is so cool. I love his unapologetic bluntness, his unfiltered rage. I have little patience for watering down a message in order to placate the opposition. We're supposed to declare our revulsion for abortion while supporting reproductive rights, and we're supposed to "support our troops" while opposing the war - because god forbid we should piss off the all-important "center". I think Ted Rall has the right idea. If America is truly on a war footing," Thom Shanker asks in the New York Times, "why is so little sacrifice asked of the nation at large?" Military recruiters are coming up short of volunteers, yet neither party is pushing for a draft. No one is proposing a tax increase to cover the $60 billion annual cost of the Iraq and Afghan wars. There are no World War II-style war bond drives, no victory gardens, not even gas rationing. Back here in the fatherland, only "support our troops" car ribbons indicate that we're...

The Canadian Medical Association supported a resolution saying that patients should be able to use private health insurance if they can't get necessary medical care quickly enough. This sounded like very big news; however, when I read the whole article, it seems a little less so. President-elect Dr. Ruth Collins-Nakai disputed that the medical association is endorsing private health care, as critics have charged. The primary concern of physicians of Canada is that patients have timely access to quality care based on need, not ability to pay, said Collins-Nakai, a pediatric cardiologist in Edmonton. Every resolution passed reflected the frustration of physicians not being able to provide that timely access to care that they so want for their patients, she said. "Delegates have said clearly that they believe the best solution is to provide that type of access is through a public health-care system," she added. Doctors have also adopted a list of "benchmark wait times,...

While I was wining and dining with my siblings, thousands of Americans were standing together in support of Cindy Sheehan. Perhaps some of you were among them. I'm very sorry I wasn't able to participate in a vigil, and I'll be looking for news about the effort. Here are some other ways we can support Sheehan's efforts to end the war: Sign the Stand With Cindy petition. Get some Support Cindy Sheehan buttons and stickers . Visibility is important. If people feel less alone, they are more likely to speak out against the war. With United For Peace and Justice , you can help organize the September 24 March on Washington. If you are in school or have a child of school age, you can support counter-recruitment efforts. Here are some resources: Student Peace Action Network Youth and The Military Code Pink's counter-recruitment efforts And here is an article from the War Resisters League about the counter-recruitment movement .

I used to organize an annual event called the Sibling Dinner, where my sister and brother and their respective spouses would come over our place for dinner. When Allan and I started working on weekends, this got a bit unwieldy, although we managed to keep it up for a year or two more. After a while, because of all our differing schedules, the Sibling Dinner became too complicated, and I stopped trying to bring the six of us together. (Although we all see each other in various combinations, whenever possible.) Last night was the last of the New York Sibling Dinners. My brother and sister-in-law (who needs no in-law qualification, we have known each other since I was 13), my sister and her husband (who is also a very old friend of mine), and Allan and I, had dinner at this lovely restaurant in Ft. Tryon Park, which is our backyard. (Thank you, Bette Midler !) We sat in the patio garden, drank much wine, and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company. It was a tough goodbye. My sister e...

We had a lovely day in Brooklyn yesterday, courtesy of cooler weather. I wouldn't have attempted these plans in last week's 98-degree heat and high humidity. Our first stop was the Green-Wood Cemetery , a historic cemetery in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn, and a must for Brooklyn fans and New York history enthusiasts. It's a huge, rambling, serene park, where many famous people are buried, and with monuments, statues and tombs designed by famous artists and architects. One part of Green-Wood is the highest land point in Brooklyn, from which you can see New York Harbor and Manhattan skyline. As you walk around, you can often glimpse the Statue of Liberty in the distance. I ordered some self-guided walking tour books for the occasion. If you ever visit, I highly recommend picking up at least one of these books. The cemetery is vast, there are more than 50,000 monuments, and you would never find the interesting bits on your own. In fact, if you check out that link with...

I'm taking another exploring day, the last one, I think, while I'm still living here. Allan and I are spending the day in Brooklyn, where I first lived when I moved to the city on my own, and where we first lived together when Allan moved down from Vermont. There's something I always wanted to do there, and never got around to... Allan also wants to visit Prospect Park, where our first dogs used to romp. Gypsy would drag me up the hill to the Park, choking herself (this was before we discovered the Halti ). As soon as we stepped foot in the Park, I'd let her off the leash and she'd streak away, up and over the hills, a disappearing speck, until she was completely out of sight. Some minutes later she'd come circling back, still racing at top speed. Later, after we found Clyde, Gypsy would prevent her from running too far away or getting lost. Our girls. They were the best.

For god's sake let him out! . . . "Jesus" has come to be viewed by many evangelical Christians as a singularly modern tool for spreading the Gospel. It speaks, though without special effects or quick editing, to a populace fluent in Hollywood. It comes in multiple languages on one disc. It concludes with a "salvation prayer" the viewer can recite with the narrator. Its local distributors consider it so effective that millions of dollars have already been spent toward the goal of delivering a copy to every household in the United States , as if it were free trial software from America Online. [Emphasis mine.] The ministry overseeing this operation, the Jesus Video Project America, calls the mass mailings "saturation evangelism." Since 1992, 20 million copies have been sent out on DVD and videotape, blanketing Alabama, Hawaii and South Carolina and large swaths of Ohio and Texas, with smatterings in the rest of the states. County-by-county distribution i...

There's a new website that pulls together hundreds of thousands of progressive blogs from the US, and indexes them by state. I'm a bit skeptical about these types of sites - there seem to be so many of them, and they're so easily lost in the vastness of the blogosphere. But hey, what I do know. Many people might find them very helpful. This one is certainly well designed and easy to use. Interested parties are directed to LeftyBlogs . The site even has a blog about itself . How meta can you get. Enjoy!

Guess what this is?!

Man, am I getting antsy. I have a few plans this week, and since the massive heat wave broke, I'll actually be able to enjoy them. Mostly, we're taking care of a zillion niggling details and running down the clock. Everyone is asking if we've started packing. The answer is no. I didn't want to drag it out for weeks. We're going to make an all-out push and do it all next week. Our bookshelves are completely bricked in with empty boxes, and our bubble wrap, tape, and other equipment are all lined up and ready to go. Today we take Buster for his every-other-month eye checkup, pick up more meds for his brutalized intestines, and learn how to give injections. We start him on Prednisone today, and if you've ever been on it, you know we're in for a rough week. Cortisone is a miracle drug, but it comes with plenty of side effects. B will be voraciously hungry, voraciously thirsty, and will want to pee constantly. Should be fun. But believe me, I am not complaining....

Paul Krugman, the standard-bearer for truth at the New York Times , reportedly has been waging an ongoing battle with his editors to run his column without sugar coating. Word has it that the big sticking point is the word "lie". Apparently it's not seemly for a columnist at that grand old bastion of newsprint to write that the President of the United States lies. Krugman snuck it in today's column , with a tweak to his editors: Many pundits and editorial boards still give Mr. Bush credit for trying to "reform" Social Security. In fact, Mr. Bush came to bury Social Security, not to save it. Over time, the Bush plan would have transformed Social Security from a social insurance program into a mutual fund, with nothing except a name in common with the system F.D.R. created. In addition to misrepresenting his goals, Mr. Bush repeatedly lied about the current system. Oh, I'm sorry - was that a rude thing to say? Still, the fact is that Mr. Bush repeatedly sa...

In today's New York Times , Frank Rich writes: "Someone Tell The President the War is Over". Like the Japanese soldier marooned on an island for years after V-J Day, President Bush may be the last person in the country to learn that for Americans, if not Iraqis, the war in Iraq is over. "We will stay the course," he insistently tells us from his Texas ranch. What do you mean we, white man? A president can't stay the course when his own citizens (let alone his own allies) won't stay with him. The approval rate for Mr. Bush's handling of Iraq plunged to 34 percent in last weekend's Newsweek poll - a match for the 32 percent that approved L.B.J.'s handling of Vietnam in early March 1968. (The two presidents' overall approval ratings have also converged: 41 percent for Johnson then, 42 percent for Bush now.) On March 31, 1968, as L.B.J.'s ratings plummeted further, he announced he wouldn't seek re-election, commencing our long extrica...

We Have the Power By Cindy Sheehan My day started way too early today. After 3 hours of sleep, I was being shaken awake by someone at 6:30 a.m. telling me that the Today show wanted me to be on. I had come into town to sleep in a trailer because my tent had been infested with fire ants. We had a very interesting day. We had Bush drive by really, really fast twice. I caught a glimpse of Laura. I was hoping after she saw me that she would come down to Camp Casey with some brownies and lemonade. I waited for her, but she never came. The Bushes were going to a barbeque/fundraiser down the road from us. I was very surprised that they let us stay so close to Bush. The families of the fallen loved ones held their son's crosses from Arlington West while Bush drove by. I bet it didn't even give him indigestion to see so many people protesting his murderous policies. I am a continued thorn in the side of right-wing bloggers and right wing-nut "journalists." One man, Phil Hendry...

That's what I get for being too busy to visit your blogs. I almost missed this great joke , brought to us by Crabletta. Go! Read! Laugh!

I haven't blogged about Cindy Sheehan in a long time. I can't add much to what's already being said about her in the blogosphere. I'm just overwhelmed with admiration for Sheehan's courage and tenacity. She is the broken, beating heart of a movement. As my friend NN wrote to me recently, we need 10,000 more like her. Which means we all have to join her . Our own AndyM did a really nice post about Sheehan and her cause, as did Crabletta . Here's some other good coverage: From Salon, "Smearing Cindy Sheehan" , from Ariana Huffington, "It Takes a Village to Smear Cindy Sheehan" , and from Normon Solomon in ZNet, "Sheehan Bush and Dean" . And in case you missed it, here is Sheehan's own story , which (along with many of you) I posted in April. Her organization can be found here .

Nothing! I can't read. I can't concentrate. The most I can manage is a magazine or newspaper story. I try to read a book and end up staring at the page, getting up to do something, sitting down, reading one sentence, getting up, flipping the pages... My fibromyalgia causes low concentration, but I'm not having a flare-up. I'm having brain overload. Anticipation overload. Head buzzing with so many things to do overload. Reading is out of the question. "Dallas" is more my speed right now. Today I'm submitting to reality and returning all library books. I'd also like to issue a blanket apology, retroactively and in advance, to anyone I may snap at in comments. I'm trying really hard to be even-tempered, but sometimes finding my foibles, um, foibling to the surface more than I would like. Mostly if I'm irritated I can just avoid the situation, but sometimes, well, you know. One more thing. Remember the essay I am trying to get published ? James ask...

Alan With One L sent me this great piece by Howard Zinn from yesterday's Guardian . (Thank you! And thanks to your sister for sending it to you...) This morning I notice it's up on Common Dreams . Mr Zinn writes: My country is in the grip of a president surrounded by thugs in suits It has quickly become clear that Iraq is not a liberated country, but an occupied country. We became familiar with that term during the second world war. We talked of German-occupied France, German-occupied Europe. And after the war we spoke of Soviet-occupied Hungary, Czechoslovakia, eastern Europe. It was the Nazis, the Soviets, who occupied countries. The United States liberated them from occupation. Now we are the occupiers. True, we liberated Iraq from Saddam Hussein, but not from us. Just as in 1898 we liberated Cuba from Spain, but not from us. Spanish tyranny was overthrown, but the US established a military base in Cuba, as we are doing in Iraq. US corporations moved into Cuba, just as Bech...

The biopsies came back. No lymphoma cells. Hooray hooray! Medical details for those who are interested. It's definitely inflammatory bowel disease, which is causing a malabsorption syndrome, meaning Buster's system has not been absorbing nutrients properly. Even though he's eating, he's malnourished. His Vitamin B levels and pancreatic function are extremely low. Normal B12 levels for a dog are 600-700. Buster's are 150. Normal pancreatic enzyme levels: 20-30. Buster: 5. In addition to a full course of Prednisone for the inflamed intestines, we'll be giving him Vitamin B12 injections. That is, I'll be giving Buster injections while Allan holds his head. Only one of us is brave about those kinds of things. The vet is going to teach me how to do this, but Dogsled_Stacie, if you have any tips or tricks, I'd be happy to know them. The doc is hoping that if the intestines get healthier, the pancreas will come along for the ride. We'll have his pancreatic...

This is hilarious. But only because it ended well. A month ago, I set up an appointment with Rogers for the day after we arrive. Since internet, VOIP phone and baseball all depend on cable, we wanted to get it going as soon as possible. The Rogers representative was amazingly helpful and efficient, especially as compared with the dolts at Time Warner of New York City. She was also Canadian, and I find that it's very helpful to deal with local people when trying to Get Things Done. Everything went very smoothly and I was happy. Recently we've been hashing through various decisions on what to bring with us, what to buy there, what to buy here and ship up there with the movers, etc. Boring but necessary details and decisions. Because of some of these, we decided to change the time of our cable appointment, to make it earlier in the day. I called Rogers this morning. There was no record of our August 31 appointment. After some research, the representative - also extremely friendly...