The GUILD 11-4-2002 GET OUT THE VOTE!!!

[mountaineer]

Pardon my html screwup in that Canada story.

[Aggie Mama]

I just found out that Laura Bush's birthday was yesterday -- She and I share the same birthday. We had a nice time last night despite all of the rain around here. DH bought me some more James Avery charms for my charm bracelet, and we went out for steak. The kids wanted to get me a cake, so we picked up a cake for them and some Blue Bell Mint Chocolate chip for me. I never got to eat it last night since I was so full from the steak, but I think I'll have plenty of opportunity to work on it tonight watching election returns.

[mountaineer]

Happy belated BD! Mint chocolate chip ice cream should be considered one of the basic food groups, in my opinion.

In honor of you and the First Lady having birthdays, and the Bushes' wedding anniversary, I say let's get out the vote!

[lodwick]

Happy Birthday!

[Iowa Granny]

Happy B'day, AM. Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream is a proven attitude booster. Enjoy!

I'm off to do the Volunteer Thing. Taking Food to the County Headquarters sites. Be Back Tonite.

[Iowa Granny]

Happy B'day, AM. Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream is a proven attitude booster. Enjoy!

I'm off to do the Volunteer Thing. Taking Food to the County Headquarters sites. Be Back Tonite.

[Timeout]

Bonjour, mon amis! Je retour à temps de faire mon choix pour governor et congress!

I took a minute and went back to see Mountaineer's pictures...good job, M! I have some photos from my digital camera loaded on my Kodak page, but I don't know how to upload them to a site for sharing (Help, someone!).

We arrived to a rainy, windy, cold Paris....perfectly like the Paris I've always imagined (sitting in a cafe with rain spilling down the window to the sidewalk). The leaves were yellow, barely hanging on the trees. It stayed cold and rainy the entire first week.

Some of you have been to Paris many times and have sung its praises here on occasion...but nothing prepared me for the sheer beauty of Paris! What a magnificent place. I've been to cities with a pretty place here, a nice monument over there. But never did I imagine the consistent beauty of Paris. Walking down any rue or boulevard or street, one can always see some kind of open space up ahead...a park, or place, or monument. The buildings are consistently lovely...which I attribute to Msr. Haussman's gutsy decision to level 3/4ths of Paris in the latter 19th century to make way for his vision of wide boulevards, lovely limestone buildings and magnificent monuments and palaces. Only in the Marais does one still find the old, narrow, lightless streets of the Middle Ages ( which are lovely in their own way).

Had a lovely lunch with mountaineer and Mr. mountaineer! After lunch we snuck in a side door of Notre Dame and avoided the looooooong lines at the front door (we may have also avoided paying...and I believe in Hell!). We didn't go up to the top and see the gargoyles, too much scaffolding. But we took time to tour the whole church and it was beautiful. Then went and took some pictures on the Pont L'Archveche (Archbishop's bridge). Mountaineer and hubby are both darling and we all enjoyed calling to order the first ever European Guild meeting!

After a week, my friend and I rented a car and we toured through the Dordogne, Loire Valley and Brittany. I'll have to come back and provide details...still a little jet lagged. We spent the last 3 nights back in Paris....we both wish we had come back even sooner. We loved the countryside, but Paris was calling! At the end, it was all shopping for souvenirs and trying to catch the shops open on a holiday weekend (All Saints Day). We went back to the Louvre, but the line was way long and we didn't have musee passes which would let us skip the line. So we took a cab over to the Picasso Museum. Sorry, but I don't get it. I'm just not a cubism fan. But it got us out of the rain for a while.

On the last night we dined at a little Italian restaurant around the corner from our hotel...I had it on my list from my research before the trip. We had a table with full view of night-lighted Notre Dame. And the owner is the most charming Italian man I've ever seen. He looks like Russell Crowe, speaks French with an Italian accent...can't get more charming than that! Anyway, he flirted with us outrageously and then walked us back to our hotel after dinner...he even did that little French thing of three kisses on the cheek before wishing us Bon Journee! Sigh. I'll dream of him for a long time....


I missed you all and wish I had time to go back and read up on all the news....someone tell me the highlights of everyone's goings on. I hate that I missed the Wellstone memorial service...I bet the Guild was in good form that day. Anyway, time to get my feet back on the ground and go cast my vote for our new Republican congressman and our new Republican governor. Got to go to work this afternoon...talk to all of you tomorrow.

(I miss Paris!)

[lodwick]

Great report - thanks for sharing it here.

Let's roll.

[mountaineer]

We were supposed to pay at Notre Dame? Oops! Glad you're back safely. I saw that you were back at the travel board, and figured you'd be stopping by the Guild soon. We're already planning for next year's trip. Attention Guilders: another rendez-vous in Paris opportunity!

[habs4ever]

Clinton was in peeing distance of me! If I'd only known!Can't say I'll be doing any business with London Drugs.

[lodwick]

Damm Habs - you missed a golden opportunity there. ;-)

[Teacup]

Good afternoon all.

I voted! Listening to Rush talk about all the voting messes. Let's all pray things go well, and Repub's take back the Senate.

Good Luck HLL.

[habs4ever]

Yes, I did ! lol...good one ;-)

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Welcome back from Paris! Sound like you had a great time and I can't wait to see the photos.

I went voting at 11:30. I dolled up in my mother's pearls for good luck and my mink coat just to be obnoxious and because I wore it for the Bush Innagural, so I am hoping for more good luck.

I come first alphabetically on the ballot, so that might help, but we still have straight ticket balloting so that works against me.

[Timeout]

We're all rooting for you today! I had a good feeling when I pulled the lever. Back in 1994, when I pushed the vote button, I remember feeling like I was going to float off the ground cause I was so excited. Haven't felt that way since....until today. When I pushed that button, I got a tingle right down to my toes....a good sign I hope!

Mountaineer, wish you could have been with us to spread the GW goodwill out in the french countryside. We sure ran into a lot of bush-haters out there. And we didn't start the conversations. Mostly it was people sitting next to us in restaurants and, when they heard our American accents, they would simply work into a conversation about "this war Bush is trying to start". We, of course, said we were of the opinion that the war started when we were attacked on Sept. 11th! Their reply (get this!)..."If only you Americans understood how the world really works". I usually tried saying I bet it would be different if they flew planes into the Eiffel Tower, but eventually gave up on even that when I realized the French would have surrendered on Sept 12th.

My friend and I finally decided it was easier to just tell them, "We think W is a hottie!". That may not have converted them, but at least it shut them up :)

[mountaineer]

Good grief, we didn't have any experiences like that, but in visiting those WWII sites in Normandy were surprised to learn just how quickly, thoroughly and happily France capitulated when the Germans showed up in 1940, that is, they folded like a cheap suit and became sniveling (cheese-eating surrender monkeys) lackeys of the Nazi occupiers. We saved them, they hate us. Plus ca change ...

And now for something completely different, Halloween wear that's appropriate for any occasion:

Cyndi Lauper gets in the Halloween spirit at the 29th Annual Village Halloween Parade in New York City.

[lodwick]

I usually tried saying I bet it would be different if they flew planes into the Eiffel Tower, but eventually gave up on even that when I realized the French would have surrendered on Sept 12th.

My friend and I finally decided it was easier to just tell them, "We think W is a hottie!". That may not have converted them, but at least it shut them up :)

Too true and too funny.

Timeout, "BOO!"

France, "Don't shoot - we surrender."

[mountaineer]

Something else to make us go "hmmmmm"

A quasi-spiritual cult has quietly infiltrated the Washington political establishment -- everyone from Al Gore adviser Carter Eskew to veteran Republican strategist James Lake. Among the other adherents -- who participate in the cult's weird rituals with varying degrees of religiosity -- are former Bill Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart, Democratic consultants Bob Shrum, Tad Devine and Michael Donilon, pollster Anna Bennett, former California GOP congressman Chip Pashayan and Republican media buyer Kathleen Jones.

Never mind today's election. Whatever the results, they pale beside the significance of SuperSlow -- a painfully glacial form of weight training that requires only 20 to 30 minutes of exertion twice a week and apparently works miracles. ...

The gospel of SuperSlow -- developed in the early 1980s by physiologists in Florida as a method of fighting osteoporosis -- says it's the only activity necessary for optimal health, but only in small, concentrated doses. Participants lift daunting amounts of poundage until their muscles literally fail, and chant the Orwellian mantra "Failure is success" (actually, come to think of it, not a bad distillation of political spin). But AOL communications czar John Buckley -- whose wife, Democratic pollster Bennett, has been among the faithful since 1994 -- told us he's alarmed.

"It's a total cult," Buckley said. "I tried it just once when Anna forced me to, but after I almost tossed my cookies in the parking lot and my legs wouldn't stop shaking, making it impossible to operate the clutch in my car, I had to stop."
Full story in Washington Post

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

I was watching Good Day Live today and they had footage of George W coming out of voting in Crawford. One of the hosts said " That George Bush is hot. He's way hotter than Clinton. Let's face it, we have a very hot president".

I couldn't help but giggle, because George sure did look hot in his jeans this morning.

****** More on the the gossip front.... J-Lo has told Diane Sawyer that she is currently engaged to Ben Affleck. I guess the sweet and lovely girl doesn't understand that she needs to be divorced before she becomes engaged. She will be divorced on January 26. It seems like yesterday that she was so in love with her dancer husband.

[lodwick]

Shockingly enough they can be found at superslow.com - they call themselves an Exercise Guild...hmmmmmmmmmm.