Hi Mama!

Above: Amadisto greets his mom with a smile.

Sorry for the blog slow down this week. I continue to be busy with work stuff, including on the weekends. And if I'm not busy with work stuff, I'm busy with baby stuff. So there you go. I'm taking a bit of time off right around Christmas, which will be my first real vacation since May 2005 when I came back from the States. Mmmm, feels like I've been working since time began.

We kept the TV on most of yesterday watching the Liberal convention. It was dramatic for sure. In the end our man Gerald Kennedy played kingmaker by taking his delagates over to Stephane Dion's camp, which knocked Bob Rae out of the leadership race. Then Dion beat Michael Ignatieff, which was fine by us since we think he may be a closet neo-con. It's great to have an environmentalist leading the Liberals, especially since Kennedy is certain to play a big role in the cabniet if Dion makes it to prime minister.

Oh, Wendy just reminded me that our family is NDP*, not Liberal, so we wouldn't be voting for Dion anyway. Oh yeah, I forgot. (Not that I can vote anyway. I'm still not a citizen.)

It's cold here, but no snow. Too bad. We're still hoping it's going to be a white Christmas.

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*Key for my American readers:
There are three main political parties in Canada (though the Greens are starting to come on strong in some parts, which would make four contending parties):

Conservatives
The current ruling party are the Converservatives, led by Stephen Harper. They aren't as conservative as the Republicans, though they are trying hard to be.

Liberals
The Liberals were in power for years, but a series of scandals brought them down in the last federal election. The are centre-left, more liberal than the Democrats though not by much.

NDP
NDP stands for New Democratic Party. They are to the left of the Liberals. Some people call them socialists, some call them the extreme left, but I don't think they're all that radical really. But progressive for sure. There's nothing like them in the States except maybe somebody like Dennis Kucinich.