I have a new toy

My new Kindle was delivered yesterday. Even though Barnes & Noble is coming out with an e-reader in November, and there are rumors of a Google version, I bit the bullet and bought a Kindle. I was looking at the reading material I wanted to bring along on my next travel adventure and soon realized that I'd be schlepping around with a suitcase half-full of books. I've got 10 books loaded in right now, with room for 1500 (or something equally ridiculous).

Initial good impressions:

-The screen is amazingly readable, even in bright sunlight.

-The font is easily scalable, so if I get stuck without my glasses, I can just jack up the font size.

-It has a built in dictionary that will give you the definition of a word without exiting the book and opening the dictionary.

-It has rudimentary web-surfing capabilities, and you can subscribe to newspapers or blogs.

Initial bad impressions:

-The screen is smaller than I thought it would be.

-The 5-way controller, kinda like a joystick, takes some getting used to.

-Turning a page takes just a smidgen too long to be seamless. You can turn a page in a real book faster than the Kindle loads a new one.

-The device is a bit too thin to fit comfortably in your hands.

I'll report back after I actually read a book on the thing.

Tattoos

Yikes!

Check out the 20 Worst Tattoos for Men. And if that's not enough for you, check out 20 Worst Tattoos for Women.

Hot Yoga

Imagine contorting yourself into unnatural positions for an hour and a half in a sauna. Imagine so much sweat pouring off you that you can hardly see. Or imagine the toxins fleeing your body and your muscles loosening in ways you never thought possible, all the while reaching a mental state approaching Nirvana. Which reality is it?

Daughter Caroline is becoming a member of the cult, and she convinced me to give it a try. What was the result?

I expected it to be a totally miserable experience somewhat akin to the 6th circle of Dante's hell. Or maybe the inner circle of the 7th. I expected it to be a form of torture to which no normal person would voluntarily submit.

My expectations were met, and I'm currently trying to arrange an intervention for Caroline.

Michael Moore Awards

Andrew Sullivan has been one of my favorite must-read bloggers ever since I started surfing the net a zillion years ago. He was one of the original bloggers who was doing it full time long before it was cool. He is an incredibly prodigious writer whose opinion I value, even if I don't agree with him all the time. In any case, one of his regular features is the awards he gives out regularly for particularly insightful or stupid opinions. His award for divisive, bitter and intemperate left-wing rhetoric is called the Michael Moore Award.

After watching Capitalism: A Love Story, I think Andrew Sullivan should change the name of the award. I saw no evidence of the attributes associated with the award in Michael Moore's latest film. Even though I've cringed at times like Moore's ambush interview of an obviously senile Charlton Heston in Bowling for Columbine, I've liked all his films. Michael Moore reduces his credibility whenever he goes over the top, but even when he does, the basis for his claims is essentially true. He restrained himself this time, and I saw only a hard-hitting, heart-wrenching, and sometimes funny movie. Everyone should see it.

News from Canada

The big news while I was up in Canada is that Steven Harper, the Prime Minister, isn't really the stuffed shirt that he seems to be most of the time. Here he is performing an old Beatles song, and Holy Cow! He can actually sing! And he even sings the original words, "I get high with some help from my friends."


Ps. He's a Conservative, but by American standards, he's a communist. Gay marriage was legalized across Canada under his watch, and he's made no effort to dismantle the single payer health care plan that most Canadians think works reasonably well. And he's a wuss because he's committed to pulling Canadian troops out of Afghanistan in 2011.

Canadian Thanksgiving

Canadian Thanksgiving isn't the huge deal that Thanksgiving is in the US, but it's still a day of family gatherings and food, lots of food. I like the Canadian date better. It spreads out the holidays a bit more, and besides, wasn't Thanksgiving supposed to coincide with the end of the harvest? The Canadian date (which happens to be Columbus Day in the US) is much closer than the American date.

In any case, Farley and I ventured up to our ancestral lands last week to spend Thanksgiving with the family in Saskatoon. I got this great shot of the moon over Lynden, just before I crossed the border into Canada.

Megan and Caroline flew up to Edmonton on Friday, and drove to Saskatoon with Pete and Marian and Tom and Devin. The only ones missing were Sarah and Alvin, but I guess we can give them a pass. Lusaka to Saskatoon travel is neither cheap nor convenient.

Here's Marian and Caroline just before tucking into the turkey dinner with all the trimmings that Mom prepared. She's slowed down over the years, but she can sure put together one hell of a feast.

Tom and Dev on the couch at Grandma's.

Mom and Megan.

Martha and Allan and Megan.

Without internet or even a cell phone, Martha is an analog (except for her big screen HDTV and satellite setup) gal in a digital world.

Here's Farley getting (and giving) some love from Katrina. He was a big hit with everyone, except possibly with Lucy, Martha's little white mutt. Within about 30 seconds of arriving at Martha's, Farley had managed to vacuum up the entire contents of Lucy's open-feeding dish of dog food. Later in the trip, he managed to eat a half-dozen buns and more off Martha's counter. Like the rest of us, he was well-fed while in Saskatoon.

An extra added bonus on this trip was my Mom's brother Pete's 80th birthday celebration. I got to see a bunch of aunts and uncles and cousins I don't normally see.

Here's a shot of Mom with her sister Susie and their baby brother Corney.

Here's the birthday boy himself, with his friend Celeste. There must be good genes on my Mom's side of the family. She has two brothers and a sister over 80.

The weather in Saskatoon was strange. It was cold and windy when I arrived last Tuesday, breaking a nice spell of Indian Summer. Then on Thursday, the snow came. It was odd because the leaves on the trees hadn't even turned brown yet. I wish I would have got a picture of the green leaves that fell off the trees on to the freshly fallen snow. A bit of cognitive dissonance, I'd say.

This shot was taken in Hinton on Monday. Mostly the roads were in pretty good shape, but as I approached the mountains on the way home, there was a stretch of snowy, icy conditions. I had left Edmonton shortly after 6AM to get a good start on the 800 mile drive back to Seattle, but when I got to Hinton the road was closed due to a major wreck. 3-1/2 hours later I was on the way again, but my early start didn't do much good when it took me 7 hours to do the normally 3-1/2 hour drive to Jasper.
Another reason for the slow pace was a herd of mountain sheep, licking the salt off the road. There were oblivious to the cars, but Farley wasn't oblivious to them.

As well as being a good sea dog, Farley proved to be a good car dog, and a great companion on the road.

It was a great trip!

Not such an internet wasteland after all

In spite of the fact that my sister has not yet joined the 20th (let alone 21st) century, internet here is readily available. This morning I drove around downtown Saskatoon looking for a coffee shop liklely to have free wi-fi. I didn't find one, and settled for the pay service at Starbucks. Well, lo and behold! Saskatchewan's communist(by American standards at least) government phone company has blanketed downtown Saskatoon in free wif-fi! Cool! So even though I may be too lazy to write a decent blog post, at least I can do a decent net-surf.

Blogging will be light

I'm headed to sister Martha's internet wasteland in Saskatoon, so blog posts will be intermittent at best for the next week or so.

Before and After

Daughter Megan recently returned from a trip to La Paz, Mexico with a freezer full of tuna, mahi-mahi, and other assorted denizens of the sea. Having never been fishing before, she annoyed a lot of people on the trip by catching the biggest fish! I too was somewhat annoyed, or maybe jealous is a better word. I've never caught a fish that big. She's also a star, becoming the featured story on the website of the fishing charter company.

Here's some of the same tuna a couple of weeks later, just before it goes on the Big Green Egg.

With some baby red potatoes, green beans and carrots, all washed down with a bottle or two of wine, we had a great meal. Thanks Megan!