A powerful voice from the world of nu-metal, two of the best young singers and screamers in metalcore, one heckuva good trio. The voices are Amy Lee (Evanescence), Courtney Laplante (Spiritbox), and Poppy (solo artist).

Since Cora brought the goodies, Ape shall do the tea and coffee.

For coffee, we'll put on some Tobermory Grotto. Teas are Scottish Breakfast and Lemon Kick (herbal). Pitchers are washed and refilled with iced tea and lemonade. Sodas are stocked.

(makes a tea and grabs a couple of the peach fritters)

Good morning and Happy Friday!! It's the weekend again! No big plans. Prep for my upcoming vacation (3 weeks), write, do housework.

The story I am plugging away on is once again in flux. I steered it away from a particular direction and now I want to move it back that way. Definitely thinking novelette or novella here given I'm at 7500ish words and still quite early in the story as envisioned.

Heaven - Bryan Adams

Quote by gillianleeza

We got stuck in traffic outside of Halifax on the way up because a wildfire there was billowing smoke across the highway, making visibility an issue. Several members of my husband's family lost their cabins, but luckily, no one lost their house. It's scary seeing flames up close.

Those fires in Nova Scotia are nasty. I have a member on another site who lives there. She hasn't been directly impacted yet but keeps us in the loop about what's happening.

Glad you had a good trip otherwise. I have good intentions about getting out to The Rock someday but some other trip always seems to take precedence.

Stain

Endemic insects often cause problems.

I find quite heartening that even as Martha Thomas continues to be successful on social media and builds a stage career (she's leading the cast of a musical), she still includes her little sister Lucy in her videos from time to time. Except Lucy ain't so little anymore. Grown up and with her hair colour now close to Martha's, it's getting hard to tell the sisters apart. Both pack lovely voices that they deploy here to cover an Elton John hit from the score of the movie The Lion King.

Planned, I think. I'm the type who would sigh and roll his eyes at a surprise party. Not my style (must relate to being an introvert or something).

Wedding cake: Traditional fruit cake or an actual cake? (I did the latter)

Freebird - Lynyrd Skynrd

Hey Cora! Nice to see you again. Vibes to you and Rose.

Nice weather continues here but more fall-ish conditions are coming, cooler with showers.

Had a nice long weekend. Got lots of both house and yardwork done. A bit of writing, too. I have a longterm project, a kind of Robinson Crusoe story but with a female lead and fantasy elements, that I keep coming back to and I worked on it. Other ideas are circulating but don't seem to take off.

Rock and Rule

Dark Chest of Wonders - Nightwish

Clementine Delauney is a French soprano who has made her mark in the world of metal, mainly as female vocalist of the Austrian band Visions of Atlantis for the past 13 years. She also guests regularly with other artists and is one of three female metal singers who form the supergroup Exit Eden from time to time. Here, though, is a rare solo release from Clementine, a cover of a lovely ballad from a French videogame.

Sailing. Boat feels safer than just a board.

Plan a vacation carefully or do something spontaneous?

So is Labour Day (at least here) the last long weekend of summer or the first long weekend of autumn? Calendar-wise, it's the last one of summer. Weatherwise, in my parts, it's a crapshoot. Temps for the past few days have definitely been fall-ish, though it's warming up for the next couple.

Since a lot of folks camp on this weekend, I have brewed some Kicking Horse Happy Camper coffee. For teas, there's Canadian Breakfast and Buddha's Blend (white + green). Sodas look good but I washed the pitchers and refilled them with iced tea and lemonade.

For yummies, we've got cookies and date squares.

Quote by verbal
If there's a heath emergency the US will be driving without headlights.

Not just the US. The CDC and NIH have historically been important contributors to health action and research globally. Now that Trump is undermining them and pulling out of WHO, I am praying there's no global health emergencies for at least another decade. Even once Trump goes, it will take years to rebuild what he and Kennedy are tearing down. That's assuming the GOP come to their senses and throw off the MAGA influence at some point.

Parasite (Korean, hence the lettering on the poster)

And if the name Guy Lombardo is not familiar, he is probably best known as the band leader who popularized singing "Auld Lang Syne" on New Year's Eve. His big band was known as the Royal Canadians.

Laufey released her new album nearly a week ago, then followed with a bonus track on Sunday. The album is all original Laufey songs, but the bonus is her arrangement of an old "standard" originally recorded by Canadian band leader (from the city where I live, in fact) Guy Lombardo's orchestra in the forties. It was written by Lombardo's brother Carmen and John Jacob Loeb. Lovely song and Laufey's reading is pretty by the book. When you compare it to some of her originals, you really see how she is influenced by this music while also bringing it to Gen Z in a format that Swifties and other contemporary music fans can digest.

One cool thing with Laufey is that she includes guitar chords in her lyric videos. She's self-taught on guitar herself (her formal training is cello and piano) so I guess it is kind of her gift to others learning that way.

Whoa, quiet in here. I know why Cora is absent but where's everyone else?

(cleans up the place, including removing old, stale goodies)

Anyhow, I'll brew some Fire-Roasted Saint Drogo coffee. In the teapots we got Scottish Breakfast and Earl Grey. Pitchers are washed and refilled with iced tea and lemonade. Sodas are stocked up.

There's still some ice cream sandwiches in the freezer and a plate of assorted Cora baked goods that seem to still be edible. I'll add a plate of the usual brownies to augment that.

Long weekend approaching in these here parts. No big plans but we shall see when we get there.

Miscellaneous thoughts haunt my brain.

Not a strong swimmer, so probably a lake.

Wine or beer to end the day?

Boxes can hold many things.

Drive these days because cycling to my office would be long and dangerous in spots. But I have biked in the past when my office was more accessible.

The weather is getting colder, do you pile on blankets or switch to a comforter/duvet?

Vibes to both you and Rose, Cora. We'll be thinking about you.

Battle of Evermore - Led Zeppelin

Zombie - The Cranberries

Relaxing would help my back.

Real, for sure. AI could be a nice tool for editing photos but I would rather have a real photo to start with.

Work from home or head to the office?

Quote by WriterGirl
They stopped in Halifax and mainly explored the boardwalk. Saint John port has been her fav! She went to the sea caves yesterday.

Saint John is a nice area. Haven't spent a ton of time there but have passed through a couple times. I nearly became a Haligonian. Had I found work down there so my wife could have remained at Dalhousie, we could have ended up there. I'm kind of glad we landed back here, though. That region has had its struggles. Right now, it's another part of Canada having wildfire problems. Nova Scotia basically closed all their provincial parks to try to minimize risk of more fires starting.