Month: June 2006

I Went And I Didn’t Blog It…


Team GX40

…but now I am so I am a big loser. We zipped across and I didn’t even take a picture for you:

  • TnT ties! Reminds me of how I felt on 16 June 1990.
  • Got made fun of by a US border guard again and got the chilly and very professional treatment from the Canadians on the way back. The difference in style still is weird.
  • Note to file: Fairgrounds Inn in Watertown is good. I am coming to the understanding that there is a thing called New York Italian that is different from Canadian Italian and Italian. It is also different (thankfully) from East Side Marios phoney baloney roadhouses. It is just a family restaurant that offers food of their fathers with a comfort diner angle. Not unlike the best small Chinese-Canadian places in a way – the Shanghai in Ottawa or the Lucky Inn in Pembroke come to mind. Anyway, encountering an excellent cream, red pepper, parsley, garlic and mushroom sauce on a $5.99 dish is dandy. Plus eight pies, most of which have confounding undescriptive names like “Kentucky Derby Pie”. Here is a link to lists and lists of “You haven’t lived in Watertown if you haven’t…” stuff.
  • The Antique Boat Museum at Clayton, NY was amazing as well but on a dreary 10C day likely not the best for photos. It reminded me of another principle of difference in small museums on this side or the other. Yesterday was family free day. Otherwise we would have had to pay at least $30 USD for us as a family. That ticket price shows up in the quality of the facility and exhibits – you are paying to support not just enter the place. And I now have a keen desire to have a woodstrip sailing canoe from 1910. 250 boats in all including mid 1800’s first nations canoes and dugouts.
  • We then proceeded to hang around the Salmon Run Mall at Watertown, mainly because of the George Rhoads of Ithaca sculpture. Here is a site about his ball-drop clangy pieces. There is a short short movie of the one at the Ithaca Sciencentre here.
  • Got canned Indian pudding, Beal St. BBQ sauces and even oyster chowder at the Hannafords. Nice having a New England grocery store so close by.

You are permitted to use this space for World Cup chat today. Gotta conserve post templates, you know. Only got so many. Big hopes for Serbia v. the Netherlands for a good game.

Thanks For Coming Out

This will help things along now nicely:

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda’s leader in Iraq who led a bloody campaign of suicide bombings and kidnappings, has been killed in an air strike, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Thursday, adding that his identity was confirmed by fingerprints and a look at his face. It was a major victory in the U.S.-led war in Iraq and the broader war on terror. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Mr. al-Zarqawi was killed along with seven aides Wednesday evening in a remote area 50 kilometres northeast of Baghdad in the volatile province of Diyala, just east of the provincial capital of Baqouba.

More here at Auntie Beeb.

Upstate Blogging And Me

I am happy to see that NYCO has reorganized the Upstate Bloggers map. I am pleased to note that I am an honourary upstater – upon which badge [Ed.: …and you do get natty badges] I earned one tiny gold star recently as I helped organize an NCPR outreach session here in Kingston. Who knew there was a blogger in Watertown? If they wave will I see them?

Next trip south to the north comes Saturday to the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton which has a natty new website. Then, on Friday the 16th, Watertown plays Genesee Valley. Good field. I just figured out that Wakefield started his career in Watertown. Who knew?

World Cup Warm-Up Week: How Am I?

It is not without some concern that I note tomorrow is 6-6-6 but I can’t let that take away from my World Cup planning. So far I have established pretty much that there is maybe a game Sunday for the lads in orange. And that is about it. I think I am in Maine for the final om July 9th which means I may have to bear the slings of portland as I try to explain why seven of the eleven guys playing for Brazil have different versions of the name Ronald on their jerseys.

P’raps I will watch some animated highlights of England’s win over Jamaica from the BBC’s Virtual Replay pages so as to get more in the mood. Six to nothing. That’ll be just like the games to come against Argentina or Germany. Sure it will.

The Redesigned CBC.ca

I came across the new vision for CBC.ca and it appears bland is in. Grey upon grey in an exciting vibrant riot of greyness:

  • The weirdest thing is the use small font of a medium grey on a coloured background for titles. It makes for very squinty reading. Sadly, before the CBC wallowed in white text on a black or other dark background. It was apparently too useful.
  • Other than that, the use of orange to highlight lesser points of interest on a page is just weird. You would think on the “Canada” news page the most important links are RSS, sign-in and services. Someone in tech clearly had a strong voice at the committee table. Otherwise “new” might have gotten the more visually important link.

I made some other pomposities here.