loglog

Exactly seven years ago the iPod was introduced. It was also the morning after the first night Alison and I spend together. We didn’t realize then that both events would have so much impact and longevity.

Happy anniversary iPod and Alison! May the seven-year-itch be gentle on all of us.

(click for bigger version)

After yesterday’s Canadian elections (aiaiai, the Conservatives won a lot of seats) it is now time to pay our full attention to the presidential elections of the United States. The elections are three weeks away and Alison has already received her absentee ballot. Last time (4 years ago) she received her ballot 9 months too late. It had been “mistakenly” sent to St. Thomas, one of the US Virgin Islands and it took a very long while to finally reach us. And it didn’t even arrive in a bottle.

Anyway, Alison is a dual US-Canadian citizen and it’s time to vote. Just as with the Canadian election, her vote doesn’t really matter. I don’t think McCain has much chance winning in the state of New York, but if they’ll ever use the popular vote for statistics it might show up. If they actually open those absentee ballot envelopes. I heard they are only opened and counted if the outcome is too close to call.

Alison always lets me vote since I’m more au courant of the political news than she is. [Okay, that's not true, and she wasn't happy with it. See her comment below.] Not that the choice at hand is particularly difficult this time around.

But filling out the ballot actually is difficult. So maybe my American readers can help me. Let me explain. I’d have expected to find entries for the candidates of the parties on the ballot: Obama for the Democrats, McCain for the Republicans and maybe one or two others that are running as independents. But instead there are 10 choices for president and vice-president. (click on the picture above to read the entries)

McCain & Palin have three entries and Obama & Biden two, and then there are no less than 5 independent candidates, four I’ve never heard of and Ralph Nader.

But why does McCain/Palin have three boxes? So their chances would triple? To confuse the uneducated or first-time voter? I’m well educated and I do find it highly confusing.

Of course I’m going to vote for that one, but which box on the ballot should I check?

Should I choose: Democratic Electors for Obama/Biden or Working Families for Obama/Biden?

What is the difference? Will it affect the outcome of the election?

If you have the answer, please let me know in the comments. Thank you.

A while ago I bitched about the exorbitant surcharges of ticket monopolist Admission. I eventually went ahead and bought my tickets for Sigur Rós at a small music shop in town, and they charged me a much lower price. But even on their tickets Admission put a 2 dollar fee.

And today was the day of the concert. Since Alison didn’t want to go I’d tried (albeit a bit late) to sell my second ticket to someone, but nobody wanted it or they had already made plans for tonight.

So I bluntly told Alison she had to come and she grudgingly complied.

I learned a couple of things tonight:

• Sigur Rós does not have a female lead singer. He just sings at a very high pitch.
• Sitting far away from the stage on a stand does not improve your connection to the performance, but is more comfortable.
• Even though Sigur Rós plays very quiet music on their albums, live on stage they are much louder.
• Sitting far away does not protect to said loudness.
• A last-minute visit to Jean Coutu to buy earplugs and cough drops proved extremely worthwhile.
• A prohibition to bring alcoholic beverages also means that water bottles will get confiscated.
• Water on sale on the premises is $3.75 and will be delivered in bottles without a cap to promote spillage.
• A prohibition to bring cameras doesn’t mean there isn’t an abundance of cameras (I didn’t dare to bring mine, hence the bad iphone-made picture above).
• Meeting a familiar face in the audience does give a lone soul a sense of belonging.
• I had a good time.
• To her surprise Alison liked it also. She even wrote about it.

We got up very early today to start Alison’s driving education. Early in the morning the parking lots of the malls are still deserted and provide safe grounds for teaching inexperienced drivers the basic working of a manual car.

We practise using the clutch, braking and changing gears. And, by necessity, making turns, because the parking lot is not that big. Alison really liked that particular part of the curriculum, especially when she drove a bit too fast and the tires started to squeal.

It wasn’t as stressful to be taught by me as she thought beforehand, so that was good. I wasn’t totally at ease but nevertheless managed to keep my underpants clean.

Warning: if you go on the road during the next year please be aware that you might share the road with Alison.

She is going to try to get a driver’s license, and has just passed her theoretical test and now she is the proud owner of a learner’s permit.

(For readers outside Québec/Canada: in order to get your driver’s license you first have to drive with a learner’s permit. That allows you to drive a car but under certain conditions: amongst others you’re not allowed to drive during the night and you always have to be accompanied by an experienced driver. This period lasts at least a year after which you can do a Practical Driving Test to get your ‘real’ driver’s license. In European countries you have to do all your driving lessons in an adapted car with a qualified driving instructor and can only drive your own car (with or without passengers) after you passed a very difficult practical driving test. I had to take it three times before I passed after taking more than 50 hour-long lessons costing 30 dollars each. Ouch!)

So now I have to teach her to drive. My plan is to start with a few test runs on a big empty parking lot early in the morning where I can teach her to the basics of steering, braking and shifting. After she has mastered that I’d suggest her to take a couple of lessons with a real instructor, in a car that is equipped with double brake- and gas pedals. When she is more or less comfortable in normal traffic we can continue her driver’s education in our car.
I’m not looking forward to that day since I’m sure I will be terrified. But I’ll try to be brave and behave like a man. And not shout at her. And be relaxed. And breathe through my stomach. And give her concise instructions. And be patient. And.. watch out!

Anybody has other suggestions to make this as painless as possible? And are there readers that drive manual cars and want to take Alison for a ride in our car after said lessons? I’m sure she will be much more comfortable with someone other than me sitting next to her. And I will probably too.

5 years later.

We walked a lot, doing a couple of walking tours.

Today we spent exploring Harlem. It was a very strange experience for me to be surrounded by non-white people. I didn’t see any Caucasians for over two hours.
I wasn’t afraid or felt threatened or something like that. I just felt slightly uneasy. Being the odd one out. It made me understand a bit better how black people must feel when they are surrounded by whites. And I wasn’t even oppressed or treated badly.

Alison didn’t have any of these feelings. She lived in Africa for 4 years, and simply doesn’t notice race.

(Now I have to clean the rest of the house; lots of sawdust there…)

You really have to entice Pepe to start eating the special low protein food he gets to prevent his kidneys to deteriorate . Mix the food with peanut butter and water. Heat it up in the microwave. Dip your finger in it, put it in front of him. He looks elsewhere. Try again. Wipe some food on his lips so he licks it off. Sometimes he start eating then, sometimes he doesn’t. If not, try harder. Often we present two kinds of food so he has another choice and can decide that food A is worse than food B so he’ll eat some of food A, gets into it and then also tries food B.
If after that he still doesn’t want to eat we put the food away so Poupoune doesn’t eat it and try again in a few hours.

All in all he’s doing quite well on the new regime. He gained some weight and in general seems to be happy and in good health.

Everything is brown and grey now the snow has melted and the trees and shrub are still leafless. Everything except Alison!