Back in the Country
Posted on October 27, 2008 Posted by John Scalzi 28 Comments
After having spent a lovely weekend in Canada. Such a nice place. With nice people! Yes, I know this is the standard report on the place. But it’s true.
However, still not home — I’m in Cleveland for a Library Journal event. But our housesitter has not told us the cats have shredded the place yet (or shredded the housesitter), so I guess we’re good for one more day.
How was your Monday?
Do you know any gypsies that might be in the market for a couple of small children?
Oh, where’d you visit? I’d guess Quebec if I had to, but I think you can get poutine nearly anywhere up here…
If they shredded the housesitter, how would you know?
I jogged a mile for the first time EVAH. I was very excited. Now, however, I’m exhausted.
I had a pretty lousy Monday, until it was pointed out that there is going to me a man dancing like a monkey coming to the internets.
How can someone have a bad day when they know they have that to look forward to?
Yay, Cleveland! Watch out for bears, dude.
Did you enjoy our hail???
I certainly did :-)
Oh, and I must second the “Yay Cleveland!”
My day was probably not as good as yours, but it was much better than a certain Alaskan Senator’s day, you betcha!
I volunteered for a Barack Obama rally and got to hear him speak and cheer him on with about 15,000 other folks in Pittsburgh today. I’ll have some photos posted on my blog shortly.
Fair to middling. Tried to early-vote, and spent an hour in line, but got less than half-way to the door before I had to leave. I figured most of the rush would be over by now. Nice to see the turn-out, but a PITA for my schedule. Now, I’ll have to wait until election day. There are about 10 early-voting sites in my county and almost all of them are like this, according to the news.
I hear Ohio allows only one early-voting site per county. Is this true? That would seem to put voters in the cities at a big disadvantage, since the lines will be so much longer there. Nice way to lock-out the urban voters there, Republicans!
John,
Forgot to mention…
Has anyone brought “Whassup 2008” to your attention? Not strictly part of my Monday, but it made my weekend a little brighter.
You’re in Cleveland and didn’t tell us?
What a coincidence! I generally experience the same thing when I am visiting, except in my case, I am visiting the USA. People are wonderful, great countryside, and many interesting attractions in the cities. But, still, always happy to return home to Vancouver. The positives far outweigh the negatives, in the US or Canada.
MEMO: Monday Report
The Monday started off early and long before the sun came up as planned. Primary mission goal of sending education resistant child to school on time achieved even after exceptional quality weekend experiences.
Well trained squad of lameos at the office proceeded with Operation Annoy the Hell out of Our Hero. Our Hero exercised supreme indifference in the face of overwhelming lameness and sanity was not lost. Constant barrage from MSQMS (Multiple Stupid Question Missile System) avoided by leaving office early. Sunshine was enjoyed.
Summary Monday successful. May FSM preserve us.
mmmm nothing like a heapin’ bowl of Nabisco Shredded Housesitter each and every mornin’!!! Breakfast: The most important meal of the day!!
Monday was peachy.
What’s the immigration policy. Just in case Diabold conspiracy theories are true.
Early was good – went and voted. Only took about 90 minutes. Which is pretty good considering the 11:00 news just said one site had 6-7 hour waits because of equipment problems.
Later, not so good. I discovered when I got home the systems in place to help unemployed folks, such as myself, are more likely to inflict brain numbing damage to us than actually help us. Loverly.
Thanks for playing.
Do not pass go, do not collect the money you are owed. Please remember claims only go forward and are not retroactive to the point where the powers that be screwed up. The DOL is, after all, here to serve you in your time of need.
Early voting in Ohio isn’t too bad… at least, when I went to vote in downtown Cleveland about a week ago, there were ZERO lines and only about 50 people there in total. But the way it was set up, they could accommodate about 25-30 people at the “get your ballot here” tables, and another 60 at the actual voting booths. I also went around 2:00, when many of the voting-age citizens of Cuyahoga Country were working. As a college student, going downtown at 2:00 wasn’t a problem =)
Pretty good, for a Monday.
I got myself past the halfway point of The Ghost Brigades. I only started Old Man’s War pretty recently and pretty much devoured it. :) I had to pick up TGB the next day. School’s slowing my progress on this one, but I’m still doing pretty well, and looking forward to The Last Colony.
Zeus is probably too busy holding down the floor to shred the housesitter. With you all away, it would have a tendency to spring up all over. I hope you admire him properly when you get home.
Let’s see I spent Monday night at work and since I was letting my trainee run solo for the night I read the last book of the trilogy.
Thanks for bringing intelligence and humanity to science fiction.
For me a good story leaves you wondering how the characters are doing years later. Well done and thanks again from Alberta, Canada.
Came in to work Monday (yesterday) after finding out on Friday our company is being sold. We are very busy, with lots of work to do, and have high hopes for continued jobs post-merger. (I *really* hope I have a job post-merger, and am not just whistling in the graveyard…)
After work, went downtown to volunteer for Dayton’s Ghost-N-Goblins pre-run day packet pick-up. It’s a fun annual 5K run which is held today, Tuesday, after work. I’ll go there after work today to help.
How was my weekend?
I hit 50,000 words, baby!
Ah, it was a year ago this week that we traveled up to Quebec for a fantastic vacation. I greatly anticipate it to be our final resting spot.
co-taught an EMT course for the first time, then found out it was a paid gig and not volunteer. Bonus!
If I had known you were in our fair city, I would’ve recommended you dine at either Sokolowski’s University Inn or Joe Sterles’ Slovenian Country House. Either would sit well on top of that poutine for a heart-bursting experience.
ytimynona Glad to hear that the polling places are so well-equipped. Let this count as a retraction of my earlier “Way to go, Republicans…!” comment, since it sounds like things are being run fairly. Here in FL we have more sites, but smaller facilities (at least in my county). One piece of good news, the governor here extended the hours now to accommodate the long lines.
Monday? I wrote a homework assignment for my High Schoolers that asked them to write one sentence on the prose that this quotes from, one sentence on the poem, and for extra credit to write their own poem about Mars.
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SNOW OVER MARS
by Jonathan Vos Post
Quotes from “Snow Over Mars”,
The Week, 17 Oct 2008, p.24
citing the Washington Post
Copyright (c) 2008 by Emerald City Publishing
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“The Mars lander aimed its laser eye”
“Snow was falling from the clouds”
through deadly thin air, in a CO2 sky
in the absence of life, far away from all crowds.
“Scientists never expected to see… snowflakes”
“Two and a half miles above” the surface of Mars:
Mars once had rivers, and oceans, and lakes
and what do we get from this? Seminars.
“Mars winters regularly feature light snowfalls”
“What this is telling us is that water does rise
from the ground to the atmosphere” — the skies —
“and then precipitates down.”
The God of War in a gossamer gown
throwing, not axes nor spears, but snowballs.
“When the planet’s polar regions were warmer
they may have had rain…” Umbrellas, or unknown?
A bit less of the latter, and more of the former.
“Is this a habitable zone… ?”
The Goddess of Love is the God of War’s wife.
“… may have had rain, and may have nurtured life.”
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1840-1900
24 Oct 2008
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