Zuni-Tamaroa Staff Meeting

Trucked on down to Virginia on Friday night for a staff meeting on Saturday morning to discuss what we should do about the Zuni-Tamaroa. We talked about fund raising, gathering a base of volunteers in the Newport News area, the website and moving to a new anchorage for the Zuni-Tam.

All agreed we need to finish the gray paint job on her. She looks like a wreck now. It does not reflect the 5 years of volunteer work done so far. It is also important to get the website updated. We will put a ship's store page on her listing products that will be sent to people who donate certain levels of funds.

I still wish she was just the plain old Tam, but oddly enough once we stuck Zuni on the name, things started to move.

Last Weekend - - Faeries Galore!!

We had an interesting weekend 10/12-14/07. Ange my eldest is a nut on Faerie lore. Regina and I went with her to Philadelphia for the First Faeriecon at the Philadelphia convention Center. I attended lectures on the differences between good faeries and bad faeries and other little gems about faerie wings or the lack thereof. :) Some of the costumes were great, really outrageous, the art was good, the writers and artists were extremely accessible signing their works and talking about their books.

Angela wore us out, that kid can boogy. In the evenings they had fantasy movies and a good faery ball one night and a bad faerie ball the next. Her costume was great. Most were...well to use an overused word, awsome. But some were pretty bad. It kind of reminded me of my Civil War reenacting days. Some of us were authentic as possible and others wore blue jeans.

Anyway it was a fun experience and last night the family got together for a nice dinner to send Ange off back to Oregon.

If you want to see some great faerie art check out Brian Froud or his wife Wendy's work. They were the Guests of Honor at the convention. Their website is http://www.worldoffroud.com/ It is impressive stuff.

Who will be the next President??

This subject really scares me. When was the last time you voted in a presidential election BECAUSE you WANTED that candidate to win as opposed to voting for a candidate because they were the lesser of two evils? Just prior to the last presidential election, I took an internet quiz which was allegedly designed to help me make a choice. It said that Bush was closest to my way of thinking followed by Dennis Kucinich. That made me a bit nervous because first I didn't even know who Kucinich was at the time and when I found out that he was a liberal democrat I was not happy.

Not that I have anything against Democrats per se. In fact, I would probably classify myself as a Reagan Democrat because where as the Democrats of the last few decades do not seem to believe in a strong national defense, I do. The democrats of the past that I admire are Harry Truman and to some extent FDR, although in many ways, he was too liberal for me. At least he knew how to fight for his country.

But look at the current crop of people out there now. I do not trust one of them, not one. Where one is good say in national defense or law enforcement, he (she) is bad when it comes to immigration. I like Tom Tancredo's stance on immigration, but he doesn't stand a chance in the general election, never mind the primaries. Hillary I don't trust, Rudy I like law-enforcement-wise but he is too liberal in other respects. Rominey is an empty suit so far as I can tell.

So right now, I don't know what to do. I'll basically have to wait til the 2nd tier folks go away and then probably vote for the one who most likely reflects my views on immigration which are pretty elementary. That being If you're legal I'm all for you. If you're not get out and I don't care what the illegal's circumstances are since they do everything thay can to take advantage of the system then stick it to the middle class tax payer.

My rant for now.......

Diana Krall

I must not be with it in the music scene. Not long ago, I saw the movie about Cole Porter with Kevin Kline in it. Diana Krall sang a song in it and I thought she had a great voice. I had never heard of her before the movie. At any rate, months later, I was visiting a web site looking for CD's and up pops an avert for Diana Krall "The Very Best of." Remembering I like her song in the movie and that the CD/DVD was on sale, I figured what the heck and bought it. I was not disappointed. I have to get a couple more of her albums. They're jazz oriented and I get a kick out of the lyrics.

There was one song in particular that I really enjoyed called "Frim Fram Sauce". There is a verse in it that goes:

"I don’t want fish cakes and rye bread

You heard what I said

Waiter please make mine fried

I want the Frim Fram Sauce with the Awsin Fay

With Shefifa on the side."

by (Ricardel,Evans)

Anyway, she actually won three grammys for her Jazz singing. Worth a listen.

ZUNI-TAMAROA is UNDER WAY!!!

The day has arrived, we are under tow, presently (October 2, 2007) nearing the Key bridge heading toward Newport News. The tow is estimated to be about 20 hours long. We are all very excited and triumphant. This tow marks the end of the beginning. A new era awaits us as the Zuni-Tamaroa now heads toward Virginia waters. Thanks to McAllister Towing for the prompt response.

We hope to gather a new pool of volunteers in the Newport News area, very heavily oriented toward the Navy and Marine Industry. When I get photos of the tow, I will post them.