Beware the Company You Keep

The illustrious crowd at a Palin rally in Ohio:



This must be the desired effect of all the Republican education cuts... My g-d.

Probably everyone has seen that Sarah Palin cheats on her taxes. The republican party has spent over $150,000 on clothes and make-up for her family since her pick as vp nominee in late August - that's more than 3x a generous estimate of the medium ANNUAL income in the US - and that's just for clothes for 2 month! Note to all you Carhartt-wearing Joe-Six-Packs, even though she flirts like a cheap whore - she's never gonna do anything for you - it's called pandering, a very useful manipulation-tool for solipsistic liars.

There's a lot of other infuriating public domainy things about Palin to cast doubt both on her ability to serve as vp as well on the campaign who chose her. The NYTmag has an article coming out on Sunday which shoul cover how Palin actually got picked.

McCain's a liar too.

Next post won't mention such distateful subject matter:)

Ivo & Burl Sitting in a Tree

• Well, lots is happening. We are getting ready for winter, rearranging furniture to free up space around the woodstove, clearing out the garage – stuff like that.
  
  Ivo pretty much refuses to wear jackets, sweaters, sweatshirts, vest, mittens and hats. It was about 6C in the sun today. It was windy. My parenting approach here is to offer him a coat and accept his answer – as much as it kills me. If we’re leaving the house, I put what I’d like Ivo to wear in the car. I tell him that if he gets cold, just let me know and we’ll get him a jacket. About half the time, he asks for his jacket. Today was not one of those times. Neither was yesterday. It’s very strange.
  
  Last weekend when we went to the pumpkin patch, Ivo didn’t want his jacket-hat-etc, but while walking with Ryan, he kept turning his head away from the wind and said, “I want the wind to stop.” One day this week – which has been pretty and sunny but cold which is a bizarre juxtaposition for Ivo, he said, “I just want it to be warm outside.”
  
  A little more Ivo Overheard:


• “Maybe we can sing that song about the breaking bridge…” -meaning London Bridge


• "When I don’t have a teddybear I CAN’T go to sleep!” – while prevaricating over which toy to take to bed.


• “I’m the pirate!” No, I’m the pirate. “…I’m the boss of the pirates!”


• After I had said, “I doubt it.” about something, Ivo asked what “doubt” means. I told him it means “I don’t think so” and he’s been using it like crazy. He tries to rope people – including Burl - into situations where he can tell them “I doubt it.” Very funny.


• "eleventeen" -when counting
  
• "yi, er, san, si, wu, lio, trois" Frang-nese counting
• When trying to get his jammie pants on, in a whiney whiney voice, “Moooom – my pants is missing a leg... My pants are missing a leg. It can’t work!”

Burl BabelOn

• Burl has been talking sooo much more. He’s said some stunning things too, mostly – but not all – repetition; hamburger, ready… (Sadly, I can’t find my notes:()


• Burly has also said, “I-o” which is quite like how Ivo used to say his own name. But more often than not, Burl calls and refers to Ivo as “O-eee” - just the opposite of “I-o.”


• "on" & "off" for clothes, tops of things, lights...


• "this"


• "peas," "noodles"
  
  Ooh, one more thing, over the past month or so, Ivo has been calling Ryan “Dad.” It was his idea.
  So tired more soon. Pics from 13 Oct 08.
  
  
  
  

Burl & Ivo Receive Couriered Booty!!!

Yay! Yay! Yay!!!

On Friday, there was a note on the door that a courier had come by with a delivery but no one was home. The note didn’t say whom the delivery was for not did it say whom the package was from. When we called up, the courier company said we could pick it up in Fredericton ourselves on Tuesday or else they’d bring it back to us on Tuesday. We had them please bring it back. The truck arrived yesterday – we were very excited! But the courier had no idea from whence these big boxes came. He said, “oh, no, we wouldn’t have that information. It seemed strange – but I wasn’t gonna complain! I put a note on Fcbk, but only Andrew answered saying he hadn’t had anything couriered to Ivo and Burl. Since no one else answered, I called Sasha cuz I kinda had an inkling it may have been she and Berton. And BINGO!

Whoo-hoo THANK YOU!!!

The boys LOVE them! Pictures of boys riding tomorrow:)

Thanksgiving Weekend Update

Today we celebrated Thanksgiving – YAY!!! Superfun and super-yummy!!!

We are THANK-FULL. Ivo is thankful for his toys. Ryan and I are thankful to be HERE with Gail and Doug in Canada. We are thankful for never being hungry, never being thirsty and never being (really) cold. We are thankful to have Ivo and Burl. And on and on.

And like Ivo said when he was telling me what he learned about thanksgiving at school, “We say thank you and thanks …to somebody… I don’t know their name.” We are grateful.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

It's deer and moose mating season, and maybe that’s why you have to "be careful" when you’re driving. I am constantly advised to be careful - careful not to hit a moose, a moose that might leap lightning-fast from out of nowhere onto the hiway in front of you. Yet, all this advice comes with no real instruction. It’s tricky. Exactly how am I to be careful? When we drove back from the party in Fredericton at midnight or 1am last week, I went 90km on the unlit, low-visibility stretches of hiway and I flashed the headlights every now and then just to give all the ruminants an extra heads-up – cuz, surely, they don’t wanna tangle with me anymore than I do with them.

While we were driving Ryan and I thought there should be some kind of sonic boom pulse-maker people who have to drive through the wilderness could put on their vehicles. We thought we had a(nother) million $ idea but the next day we found out that for 5$, you can get a set of whistles that affix to your car and are supposed to do what our sonic-boom-pulse-emitter was meant to do.

Anyway, it was a relief to find out that something already existed and Gail suggested checking at Canadian Tire. I asked a clerk and a guy in line behind me said, "O - you don't want them." Why? "Cuz they startle the deer and make them run at ya." Ooh, hmm. I found his opinion compelling but not convincing - I mean, it’s still a sound and why would they want to run toward it? The main flaw I forecasted was that the whole thing was a scam- since this sound is at a register I will never hear, there's a chance I'm just sticking plastic Xanax on the hood.

I still wanted to see them. The woman who was loud-speakered over to help me had no idea what the man had said (and frankly, he seemed insulted that I was still interested, but, come on). I told her that I was new to the area and asked her what she thought of these things. She said, and I am not joking or exaggerating, "Oh, they work. My father has used them for years and has never seen a deer or moose on the road." Well, that's great, I said and thought. She went on, "My mother never used them and she hit a moose and was killed." Whaa!?!?!? Yikes - and she wasn't putting me on - they only cost 5$ - it's not a commission item... I bought 2 sets.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Good news if you’re craving words from Ivo and Burl. I’ve recently received emails from my mom and my sister extolling Ivo’s genius based on different things, but I do not think the following will disappoint:)

Ivo Overheard:

• “Everything grows except hard things don’t grow.” Upon questioning Ivo identified "hard things" as stuff like cars, tables, toys... (!)


• “All babies grow up to be mans.” Half-right:)


• “I need my practacy.” (a portmanteau of practice and privacy) He says this while sitting on the toilet when he wants me to “close the door, Burly don’t come in.”


• “Farties” for the Canadian candy “Smarties”


• A British kid on teletubbies (Burl’s favorite show – Ivo prefers “big-kid shows”) said “I like chameleons.” Ivo repeated, “I like Canadians.”


• “Spider in da hole!!!”


• “I’m thankful for my toys.”
  

Burly BabelOn:

• eggs, hat, hand, geese, nunu, fish


• “ooo-ooo”= “choo choo”= train

NEW CAMERA!!!

It's been a busy week - lots happening, lots of interesting and awesome things coming out of Ivo and Burl's psyches. Alas, without pictures to accompany... my enthusiasm was muted. Also, I was sick a couple days in there.

So, last Saturday night Ryan and I went into Fredericton for dinner and a party hosted by Lindsay and Geoff, who both lived in Taichung for 6 years. Geoff is in the same program at STU as Ryan. While we were in town we stopped at Future Shop and looked at the cameras. Today - 6 days later - we returned and bought a Canon S5 IS... YAY!!! And so far AWESOME!!!

I've read the whole short book of instructions, installed the software and loaded up the picsI took today. The camera can do A LOT - most of which I haven't had a chance to explore... can't wait!!! YAY!!!

Today Ryan and I also went to Value Village and did some SHOPPING - we got a teletubbies costume for Burl and a fleece vest for Ivo, several blazer/work-suitable jackets and a couple of ties for Ryan, and a wool cape for me. YAYAYAYAYAY!!! Wool:)

Here are a few pics from our moving car...

A few pics from Connell Park...

A little Ivo Overheard:

• When Ivo was mad mad mad at me he sang, “Just a bad mom
  Bad bad bad bad bad mom
  …I didn’t like dat”
  
• “When I grow up to be a man – what will papa be?
  ...I don’t want you to be a grammie when I grow up.”


• “My dreams come true.”


• “Why there are no wires on this road?” (on a really rural road b/w Waterville and Florenceville – Ivo noticed that there were no telephone poles and wires)


• When Ivo's exasperated or his quest frustrated, he growl-sighs "Rrrrhhh!" - I'm gonna try to get it on video - it's hilarious:)

Burly BabelOn:

• Eggs, toast, numnum = booby
  
• He still says “Tub-tub” for teletubbies and does a version of each’s name, the most transcribable being; LaLa and Do=Po.


• When Burl notices there isn’t any (left) he points and says, “no, no, no, no”


• When Burl wants a toy or a turn or doesn’t want something snatched away, he says, “I, I, I, I…”

Ivo and Burl Speak

Why my name is Ivo?
Because Papa and I love that name
Me too. I love that name too.
I think it a good name for me.
I think it the coolest name.
I like Burly name too.

Ivo made a collage of a turkey at school on Wednesday. He held it proudly and said, “Tour-key. Gobble gobble. Thanksgiving.” I asked Ivo what people like to do on Thanksgiving, thinking his answer would have something to do with the tour-key but instead, he said, “Say thank you and thanks.” To whom? “To somebody – but I don’t know their name.”

Burl has loved cows since he first saw them across the road here. We see and hear them everyday. Ivo and I say “moo,” Burl says his own version of moo which sounds ridiculously close to the Chinese word for cow. This is incredible as he also hails Grammie Gail something that sounds like “amah.” The sound Burl makes for “moo” starts with n- followed by such a long ooo sound it’s almost multisyllabic and I swear I hear a little –iii-ooo in there.

US vp debate afoot. Jeez...

Also, my camera seems to be officially dead.

Pics from 24 Sep - just a little window on the power and the glory of Tim Horton's chocolate covered chocolate donuts...

Burl couldn't believe his tastebuds!!! He gave the donut a thumbs-up.