Yeah, $43,000.00 dollars will get you laid all right....

Well, its good to see our elected officials are creative in their junkets. $200,000.00 is being requested so that Canadian MP's can travel to some of the worlds's brothels and bordellos, with 43,000.00 alone going to "fees and interpreters". Jerks! Just hire "Ed the Sock"! Bet you can get his un-dee-vi-dedd attention for a whole week with 200 G's!! Certainly you have mine!

here is the link....read it and weep as you fill out your tax form this month!

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/OttawaSun/News/2005/03/27/973276-sun.html

And a little snippet to whet your appetite....

MPs seek cash for study of European prostitutes

By KATHLEEN HARRIS, Parliamentary Bureau (you can email her here....kathleen.harris@tor.sunpub.com)


MPs would benefit from visiting these areas and meeting with law enforcement agencies, counsellors and brothel owners, the budget request document states.

The $143,678 travel budget request for Liverpool, Amsterdam, Utrecht and Stockholm includes $62,840 for transportation, $25,328 for accommodation, $12,000 for food and $43,500 for miscellaneous items like interpretation, official gifts and fees.

The trip by Davies, Tory MP Art Hangar, Bloc Quebecois MP Paule Brunelle and Liberals John Maloney and Hedy Fry was approved by the justice committee Thursday, but must still clear another Commons budgetary committee.

Justice committee chairman Paul DeVillers said the trip has merit.

"I think it will be of value for the subcommittee to go and speak to people in those countries that have different regimes and get a sense of which is the best way to go," he said.

Banned words.

http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current.php

Lake Superior State University 2005 List of Banished Words

good ole LSSU again! An excellent list of banished words and phrases. My favorites are "wardrobe malfunction", "Blog", "Webinar" (whats up with that????) and "All New" (as opposed to Partly New I guess!)

Toronto Drivers are good. Yup, I actually said that!

Spent the weekend in Toronto. Not so bad going in...the 401 was its usual crowded, cut you off in the fast lane type of driving, and attended a good meeting. This is the meeting where we are going to figure out how to run the ren faire for another year. Interesting dynamics, but beyond the scope of this blog. On Saturday, they got an inch of snow. Yup...it brought the city to a standstill. But now that I am in the middle of it, I can see why! The snow almost immediatly became glare black, and the automobiles merely curling rocks on a rather dirty sheet of ice. Busses sideways on Eglington, salt trucks sliding off the roads into lamp posts. Remarkable! The salt trucks could not get up the hill at Bathurst and Eglington, so they went around. Would that the rest of the traffic could have thought ahead enough to do the same! Such as myself! "Put it in low people, and gently go up the road. That spinning tire has NO traction!"
Ah well...as usual Toronto had almost no snow. Ottawa on the other hand is sitting under a nice yard thick blanket of the stuff! My back yard is very pretty....the snow covers the derelict cars. Mind you, I have not seen the dog in a couple of months...he is no doubt under the snow somewhere feasting of the squirrels.

Baby, its COLD outside. Yes it is, yes it is......

Now this just goes to show how your life experience may NOT prepare you for your future actions. This numbskull grew up in California, and lived most of his life in the sunny south. Got into an internet chat with a babe in Quebec. Trouble is, he is a convict, and we won't let him in. So, he snuck across the border. Not just ANY border, but the North Dakota, Manitoba border. In February. By himself. Wearing gloves instead of mitts.

The whole story can be found here....http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Law/2005/03/07/953038-cp.html

U.S. man who snuck into Canada to visit Internet sweetheart won't go to jail

By STEVE LAMBERT

WINNIPEG (CP) - After sneaking across the border in bone-chilling weather to meet his Internet sweetheart, Charles Gonsoulin has learned that love can sometimes hurt.

The Los Angeles-born maintenance man pleaded guilty Monday to illegally entering Canada. He will be deported, but not before having all of his fingers and half of his toes amputated because of severe frostbite.

"He didn't really know that there could be any place on earth this cold, this inhospitable," defence lawyer Mike Cook said at Gonsoulin's sentencing hearing.

"This is a love story with a very, very sad ending."

There's more to the story. As far as I know, he never does get the girl. But maybe that is all to the good. Watching Darwin in action is always entertaining. Too bad he didn't freeze off his central member instead of just his fingers! Hey, I wonder how he will do the chat rooms without fingers for a keyboard! Women around the world may now rejoice.
Sheeiiit honey...you gotta find one with brains! I grew up around there...you know how hard it is to act cool, and not wear a hat when it is like, minus 30 degrees and WINDY. Where do you think Chicago gets its wind FROM? We send those clippers down from Winnipeg!

Saint Frances...The Patron Saint of Cars and Drivers

Oh bother, now I know who to pray for while test driving those new cars! Maybe I can get the priest next door to bless the poor old Aerostar. Or give it last rites!

http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintf10.htm


Also known as
Franziske
Memorial
9 March
Profile
An aristocrat by birth, her parents were Paul Bussa and Jacobella de' Roffredeschi. Married at age 12 to Lorenzo de' Ponziani, her marriage lasted 40 years. Mother of three in 1400, 1404, and 1407. Widow.

Benedictine. Foundress of the Oblates of the Tor de' Specchi (Collatines). Said to have been guided by an archangel only she could see. Spent her life and fortune, both as laywoman and religious, in the service of the sick and the poor, including the founding of the first home in Rome for abandoned children. Dictated 97 Visions, in which she saw many of the pains of Hell.

On her feast day priests bless cars due to her patronage of cars and drivers. Frances certainly never drove, but legend says that when she went abroad at night, her guardian angel went before her lighting the road with a headlight-like lantern, keeping her safe in her travels.
Born
1384 in Rome, Italy
Died
1440 in Rome, Italy; relics at Saint Frances of Rome, Rome, Italy; entombed beneath the pavement of the Ponziani sacristy of the Church of Saint Cecilia, Rome
Canonized
1608 by Pope Paul V
Patronage
automobile drivers, automobilists, cab drivers, death of children, lay people, motorists, people ridiculed for their piety, Roman housewives, taxi drivers, widows
Representation
woman habited in black with a white veil, accompanied by her guardian angel, and sometimes carrying a basket of food; nun with her guardian angel dressed as a deacon; nun with a monstrance and arrow; nun with a book; nun with an angel with a branch of oranges near her; receiving the veil from the Christ Child in the arms of the Blessed Virgin

Canadian Gold Medals! And Bronze is nothing to sneeze at!

Way to go Matt!



CHUNCHEON, South Korea (CP) - Mathieu Turcotte led the Canadian men to the gold medal at the short-track speed skating world team championship Sunday with victories in two races.

The Canadian women took the bronze.

In the team event, there are heats in the 500, 1,000 and 3,000 metres and a relay. A skater from each country races in each heat and the top three finishers in each earn points for their country. Relay points are doubled.

The Canadian men finished first in the four-country final with 43 points, beating defending champion South Korea with 36. China was third with 22.